MUSK-OX,  BISON, 
SHEEP  &  GOAT 


CASPAR  WHITNEY 

and  others 


AMERICAN  SPORTSMAN'S  LIBRARY 

Edited  by  Caspar  Whitney 


LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


THE  AMERICAN  SPORTSMAN^  LIBRARY 

EDITED  BY 
CASPAR    WHITNEY 


MUSK-OX,   BISON,  SHEEP 
AND   GOAT 


lr.    V 


SK-OX.   BISON,  SHEEP 
)  GOAT 


CASPAR  WHir-EY 


THE  MACMiu  AN  COMPANY 

LQNLOS:  MACN.   ;      -      Ik  CO..  Ufft. 

THE    BEGINNING    OF   THE   SLAUGHTER 


H3THOUAJ3    3HT   ^0    OH1HHIO33    3HT 


MUSK-OX,  BISON,  SHEEP 
'"   :       AND  GOAT 

BY 

CASPAR  WHITNEY 

» « ' 

GEORGE    BIRD   GRINNELL 

AND 

OWEN  WISTER 


If  0rk 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1904 

All  rights  reserwd 


COPYRIGHT,   1904, 
BY  THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY. 


Set  up,  electrotypcd,  and  published  February,  19*4. 


Norwood  Press 

J.  5.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Ct. 
Norwood,  Mass.t  U.S.A. 


MUSK-OX,    BISON,   SHEEP 
AND   GOAT 


CONTENTS 

THE   MUSK-OX 
BY  CASPAR  WHITNEY 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    MY  FIRST  KILL 17 

II.    THE  PROVISION  QUESTION 32 

III.  SEASONS  AND  EQUIPMENT 44 

IV.  METHOD  OF  HUNTING 56 

V.    THE  MUSK-OX 70 

THE  BISON.    BY  GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL              .        .  107 
THE   MOUNTAIN    SHEEP:    HIS    WAYS.      BY    OWEN 

WlSTER 167 

THE    WHITE    GOAT    AND    HIS   WAYS.     BY    OWEN 

WlSTER .  227 

INDEX 277 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  SLAUGHTER   .        .        .       Frontispiece 

PAGE 

IN  THE  FAR  NORTH 15 

AT  BAY 30 

OUTNUMBERED 45 

EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  CALF 57 

HEAD  OF  TWO-YEAR-OLD  MUSK-OX  BULL    ....  57 
MUSK-OXEN  ON  CAPE  MORRIS  JESUP,  BROUGHT   TO   BAY 

BY  DOGS 65 

THE  AUTHOR'S  BARREN  GROUND  HUNTING  KNIFE  AND  Ax  67 

THE  BARREN  GROUND  MUSK-OX  —  A  FULL-GROWN  BULL  .  71 

FOREFOOT  OF  BARREN  GROUND  MUSK-OX    ....  76 

FULL-GROWN  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  —  ADULT  MALE  77 

FOREFOOT  OF  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  ....  79 

SKULL  OF  THE  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  —  FRONT  VIEW  82 

SKULL  OF  THE  BARREN  GROUND  MUSK-OX  —  FRONT  VIEW  82 

SKULL  OF  THE  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  —  SIDE  VIEW  .  83 

SKULL  OF  THE  BARREN  GROUND  MUSK-OX  —  SIDE  VIEW  .  83 

MALE  YEARLING  OF  THE  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX        .  87 

ADULT  FEMALE  OF  THE  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX          .  95 

MUSK-OX  CALF 101 

THE  LAST  OF  THE  HERD 109 

ii 


1 2  Illustrations 

PAGE 

PROTECTED I39 

ROCKY  MOUNTAIN  SHEEP !69 

ALERT j^- 

UNDER  A  HOT  SKY ^7 

SURPRISED «        .        .        .  201 

THE  SADDLEBACK  SHEEP 213 

ABOVE  TIMBER  LINE 229 

THE  WHITE  GOAT  is  AN  AGILE  CLIMBER  .        .        .        .253 


THE   MUSK-OX   AND    ITS    HUNTING 

BY  CASPAR  WHITNEY 


IN   THE   FAR   NORTH 


MUSK-OX,  BISON,  SHEEP,  AND 
GOAT 

THE    MUSK-OX 

I 

MY  FIRST  KILL 

WE  had  passed  through  the  "  Land  of  Little 
Sticks,"  as  the  Indians  so  appropriately  call  that 
desolate  waste  which  connects  the  edge  of  tim- 
ber land  with  the  Barren  Grounds,  and  had  been 
for  several  days  making  our  way  north  on  the 
lookout  for  any  living  thing  that  would  provide 
us  with  a  mouthful  of  food. 

We  had  got  into  one  of  those  pieces  of  this 
great  barren  area,  which,  broken  by  rocky  ridges, 
of  no  great  height  but  of  frequent  occurrence, 
are  unspeakably  harassing  to  the  travelling  snow- 
shoer.  It  was  the  third  twelve  hours  of  our  fast, 
save  for  tea  and  the  pipe,  and  all  day  we  had 
been  dragging  ourselves  wearily  up  one  ridge 
and  down  another  in  the  ever  recurring  and 

'7 


1 8  The  Musk-ox 

always  disappointed  hope  that  on  each  we  should 
sight  caribou  or  musk-oxen.  The  Indians  were 
discouraged  and  sullen,  as  they  usually  did  become 
on  such  occasions;  and  this  troubled  me  really 
more  than  not  finding  food,  for  I  was  in  con- 
stant dread  of  their  growing  disheartened  and 
turning  back  to  the  woods.  That  was  the  possi- 
bility which,  since  the  very  starting  day,  had  at 
all  times  and  most  seriously  menaced  the  success 
of  my  venture ;  because  we  were  pushing  on  in 
the  early  part  of  March,  at  a  time  when  the 
storms  are  at  their  greatest  severity,  and  when 
none  had  ever  before  ventured  into  the  Barren 
Grounds.  Therefore,  in  my  fear  lest  the  Indians 
turn  back,  I  sought  to  make  light  of  our  diffi- 
culties by  breaking  into  song  when  we  stopped 
to  "  spell "*  our  dogs,  hoping  by  my  assumed  light- 
heartedness  to  shame  the  Indians  out  of  showing 
their  desire  to  turn  homeward. 

How  much  I  felt  like  singing  may  be  imagined. 

So  the  day  dragged  on  without  sight  of  a  mov- 
ing creature,  not  even  a  fox,  and  it  was  past  noon 
when  we  laboriously  worked  our  way  up  one  par- 
ticular ridge  which  seemed  to  have  an  unusual 
amount  of  unnecessary  and  ragged  rock  strewn 

1  Rest. 


My  First  Kill  19 

over  its  surface.  I  remember  we  scarcely  ven- 
tured to  look  into  the  white  silent  country  that 
stretched  in  front  of  us;  disappointment  had 
rewarded  our  long  searchings  so  often  that  we 
had  somehow  come  to  accept  it  as  a  matter 
of  course.  Squatting  down  back  of  the  sledge  in 
shelter  from  the  wind  seemed  of  more  imme- 
diate concern  than  looking  ahead  for  meat:  at 
least  we  were  sure  of  the  solace  our  pipes  gave. 
Thus  we  smoked  in  silence,  with  no  sign  of  inter- 
est in  what  the  immediate  country  ahead  might 
hold  for  us,  until  Beniah,  the  leader  of  my  Indians, 
and  an  unusually  good  one,  started  to  his  feet 
with  an  exclamation  and,  hurriedly  climbing  on 
top  a  good-sized  rock,  stretched  his  arm  ahead, 
obviously  much  stirred  with  excitement.  He 
shouted,  once  and  loud,  "  ethan? *  and  then  con- 
tinued mumbling  it  as  though  to  make  his  tongue 
sure  of  what  his  eyes  beheld.  We  all  gathered 
around  him,  climbing  his  rock  or  on  other  ones, 
in  desperate  earnestness  to  see  what  he  saw  in  the 
direction  he  continued  pointing.  It  was  minutes 
before  I  could  discern  anything  having  life  in  the 
distance  which  reached  away  to  the  horizon  all 
white  and  silent,  and  then  I  detected  a  kind  of 

1  Caribou. 


20  The  Musk-ox 

vapor  arising  apparently  from  some  dark  objects 
blurringly  outlined  against  the  snow  about  four 
miles  away ;  it  was  the  mist  which  arises  from  a 
herd  of  animals  where  the  mercury  is  ranging 
between  sixty  and  seventy  degrees  below  zero, 
and  on  a  clear  day  may  be  seen  five  miles  away. 
Thoroughly  aroused  now,  I  got  my  field-glasses 
from  my  sledge  and  searched  the  dark  objects 
under  the  mist.  They  were  not  caribou,  of  that 
I  was  certain  ;  as  to  what  they  were  I  was  equally 
uncertain,  for  the  forms  were  strange  to  my  eye. 
So  I  handed  the  glasses  to  Beniah,  saying,  "  ethan 
ilia."1  Beniah  took  the  glasses,  but  as  it  was 
the  first  time  he  had  ever  looked  through  a  pair, 
their  range  and  power  seemed  to  excite  him  quite 
as  much  as  did  the  appearance  of  the  game  itself. 
When  he  did  find  his  tongue,  he  fairly  shouted, 
"  ejerrir 2  I  had  no  accurate  knowledge  of  what 
u  ejerri"  meant,  but  assumed  we  had  sighted 
musk-oxen.  Instantly  all  was  excitement.  The 
Indians  set  up  a  yell  and  rushed  for  their  sledges, 
jabbering  and  laughing.  It  seemed  incredible 
that  these  were  the  same  men  who  so  shortly 
before  had  sat  silent  with  backs  to  the  wind, 
dejected  and  indifferent. 

1  Not  caribou.  2  Musk-ox. 


My  First  Kill  21 

Every  one  now  busied  himself  turning  loose  his 
dogs,  —  a  small  matter  for  the  Indians,  with  their 
simply  sewn  harness  from  which  the  dogs  were 
easily  slipped,  but  a  rather  complex  job  for  me. 
My  dog  train  had  come  from  the  Post,  and  its  har- 
ness was  made  of  buckles  and  straps  and  things 
not  easily  undone  in  freezing  weather ;  so  it  hap- 
pened that  by  the  time  my  dogs  were  unhitched, 
the  Indians  and  all  their  dogs  were  fully  quarter  of 
a  mile  nearer  the  musk-oxen  than  I  and  running 
for  very  dear  life.  My  preconceived  notions  of 
the  musk-ox  hunting  game  were  in  a  jiffy  jolted 
to  the  point  of  destruction,  as  I  now  found 
myself  in  a  situation  neither  expected  nor  joyful. 
It  was  natural  to  suppose  some  assistance  would 
be  given  me  in  this  strange  environment,  and 
that  the  consideration  of  a  party  of  my  own 
organizing  and  my  own  paying  should  be  my 
killing  the  musk-ox  for  which  I  had  come 
so  long  a  distance.  But  we  were  a  long  way 
from  the  Post  and  interpreters  and  restraining 
influences ;  and  at  this  moment  of  readjustment 
I  speedily  realized  that  it  was  to  be  a  survival 
of  the  fittest  on  this  expedition,  and  if  I  got  a 
musk-ox  it  would  be  of  my  own  getting.  It 
comforted  me  to  know  that,  even  though  some- 


22  Tbe  Musk-ox 

what  tucked  up  as  to  stomach,  due  to  three  days' 
hard  travel  on  only  tea,  I  was  in  fine  physical  con- 
dition, and  up  to  making  the  effort  of  my  life. 

By  the  time  I  had  run  about  two  miles  I  had 
caught  the  last  of  the  Indians,  who  were  stretched 
out  in  a  long  column,  with  two  leading  by  half  a 
mile.  Within  another  mile  I  had  passed  all  the 
stragglers,  and  was  running  practically  even  with 
the  second  Indian,  who  was  two  or  three  hun- 
dred yards  behind  the  leading  one.  This  Indian, 
Seco  by  name,  was  one  of  the  best  snow-shoe 
runners  I  ever  encountered.  He  gave  evidence 
of  his  endurance  and  speed  on  many  another 
occasion  than  this  one,  for  always  there  was  a  run 
of  four  miles  or  more  after  every  musk-ox  herd 
we  sighted,  and  invariably  a  foot-race  between 
Seco  and  me  preceded  final  leadership.  I  may 
add  incidentally  that  he  always  beat  me,  although 
we  made  some  close  finishes  during  the  fifty- 
seven  days  we  roamed  this  God-forgotten  bit  of 
the  earth. 

On  this  particular  day,  though  I  passed  the 
second  Indian,  Seco  kept  well  in  the  lead,  with 
practically  all  the  dogs  just  ahead  of  him.  It 
was  the  roughest  going  I  had  ever  experienced, 
for  the  course  lay  over  a  succession  of  low  but 


My  First  Kill  23 

sharp,  rocky  ridges  covered  with  about  a  foot  of 
snow,  and,  on  the  narrow  tripping  shoes  used  in 
the  Barren  Grounds,  I  broke  through  the  crust 
where  it  was  soft,  or  jammed  my  shoes  between 
the  wind-swept  rocks  that  lay  close  together,  or 
caught  in  those  I  attempted  to  clear  in  my 
stride.  It  was  a  species  of  hurdle  racing  to  test 
the  bottom  of  a  well-fed,  conditioned  athlete; 
how  it  wore  on  a  tea  diet  I  need  not  say. 

After  we  had  been  running  for  about  an  hour, 
it  seemed  to  me  as  though  we  should  never  see 
the  musk-oxen.  Ridge  after  ridge  we  crossed 
and  yet  not  a  sight  of  the  coveted  quarry.  Seco 
still  held  a  lead  of  about  one  hundred  yards,  and 
I  remember  I  wondered  in  my  growing  fatigue 
why  on  earth  that  Indian  maintained  such  a  pace, 
for  I  could  not  help  feeling  that  when  the  musk- 
oxen  finally  had  been  caught  up,  he  would  stop 
until  I,  and  all  the  Indians  and  all  the  dogs  had 
come  up,  so  as  to  more  certainly  assure  the  suc- 
cess of  the  hunt :  but  it  was  not  the  first  time  I 
had  been  with  Indian  hunters,  and  I  knew  well 
enough  not  to  take  any  chances. 

In  another  half  hour's  running,  as  I  worked  up 
the  near  side  of  a  rather  higher  and  broader 
ridge  than  any  we  had  crossed,  I  heard  the 


24  The  Musk-ox 

dogs  barking,  and  speeding  to  the  top,  what  was 
my  disappointment,  not  to  say  distress,  at  behold- 
ing twenty-five  to  thirty  musk-oxen  just  startled 
into  running  along  a  ridge  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  beyond  Seco,  who,  with  his  dogs,  was  in 
full  chase  after  them  about  fifty  yards  ahead  of 
me.  What  I  thought  at  that  time  of  the  North- 
land Indian  hunting  methods,  and  of  Seco  and 
all  my  other  Indians  in  particular,  did  the  situ- 
ation and  my  condition  of  mind  scant  justice 
then  —  and  would  not  make  goodly  reading  here. 
Had  I  been  on  an  ordinary  hunting  expedition, 
disgust  with  the  whole  fool  business  would,  I 
doubt  not,  have  been  paramount,  but  the  thought 
of  the  distance  I  had  come  and  the  privations 
undergone  for  no  other  reason  than  to  get  a 
musk-ox,  made  me  the  more  determined  to  suc- 
ceed despite  obstacles  of  any  and  all  kinds.  So  I 
went  on.  The  wind  was  blowing  a  gale  from  the 
south  when  I  reached  the  top  of  the  ridge  along 
which  I  had  seen  the  musk-oxen  run,  and  the 
main  herd  had  disappeared  over  the  northern  end 
of  it,  and  were  a  mile  away  to  the  north,  travelling 
with  heads  carried  well  out,  though  not  lowered, 
at  an  astonishing  pace  and  ease  over  the  rocks. 
Four  had  separated  from  the  main  body  and  were 


My  First  Kill  25 

going  almost  due  east  on  the  south  side  of  the 
ridge.  I  determined  to  stalk  these  four,  because 
I  could  keep  the  north  side  of  the  ridge,  out  of 
sight,  and  to  leeward,  feeling  certain  they  would 
sooner  or  later  turn  north  to  rejoin  the  main 
herd.  It  seemed  my  best  chance.  I  perfectly 
realized  the  risk  I  ran  in  separating  from  the 
Indians;  but  at  that  moment  nothing  appeared 
so  important  as  getting  a  musk-ox,  for  which  I 
had  now  travelled  nearly  twelve  hundred  miles 
on  snow-shoes. 

I  have  done  a  deal  of  hunting  in  my  life,  over 
widely  separated  and  trackless  sections,  and  had 
my  full  share  of  hard  trips;  but  never  shall  I 
forget  the  run  along  that  ridge.  It  called  for 
more  heart  and  more  strength  than  any  situation 
I  ever  faced.  Already  I  had  run,  I  suppose,  about 
five  miles  when  I  started  after  those  four  musk- 
oxen  ;  and  when  the  first  enthusiasm  had  passed, 
it  seemed  as  though  I  must  give  it  up.  Such 
fatigue  I  had  never  dreamed  of.  I  have  no  idea 
how  much  farther  I  ran,  —  three  or  four  more 
miles,  likely,  —  but  I  do  remember  that  after  a 
time  the  fancy  possessed  me  that  those  four 
musk-oxen  and  I  were  alone  on  earth,  that  they 
knew  I  was  after  their  heads,  and  were  luring  me 


26  The  Musk-ox 

deep  into  a  strange  land  to  lose  me ;  thus  in  the 
great  silent  land  we  raced  grimly,  with  death 
trailing  the  steps  of  each.  The  dead-white  sur- 
face reaching  out  before  me  without  ending 
seemed  to  rise  and  to  fall  as  though  I  travelled  a 
rocking  ship ;  and  the  snow  and  the  rocks  danced 
around  my  whirling  head  in  a  grinning,  glisten- 
ing maze.  When  I  fell,  which  frequently  I  did, 
it  seemed  such  a  long  time  before  I  again  stood 
on  my  feet ;  and  what  I  saw  appeared  as  though 
seen  through  the  small  end  of  field-glasses. 

I  was  in  a  dripping  perspiration  and  had 
dropped  my  fur  capote  and  cartridge-belt  after 
thrusting  half  a  dozen  shells  into  my  pocket. 
On  and  on  I  ran,  wondering  in  a  semi-dazed 
way  if  the  musk-oxen  were  really  on  the  other 
side  of  the  ridge.  Finally  the  ridge  took  a  sharp 
turn  to  the  north,  and  as  I  reached  the  top  of  it, 
there  —  about  one  hundred  yards  ahead  —  were 
two  of  the  musk-oxen  running  slowly  but  directly 
from  me.  Instantly  the  blood  coursed  through 
my  veins  and  the  mist  cleared  from  my  eyes ; 
dropping  on  one  knee  I  swung  my  rifle  into  posi- 
tion, but  my  hand  was  so  tremulous  and  my  heart 
thumped  so  heavily  that  the  front  sight  wobbled 
all  over  the  horizon.  I  realized  that  this  might 


My  First  Kill  27 

be  the  only  shot  I  should  get,  —  for  Indians  had 
gone  into  the  Barren  Grounds  in  more  propitious 
seasons,  and  not  seen  even  one  herd,  —  yet  with 
the  musk-oxen  going  away  from  me  all  the  while, 
every  instant  of  time  seemed  an  insuperable  age. 
The  agony  of  those  few  seconds  I  waited  so  as  to 
steady  my  hand !  Once  or  twice  I  made  another 
attempt  to  aim,  but  still  the  hand  was  too  uncer- 
tain. I  did  not  dare  risk  a  shot.  When  I  had 
rested  a  minute  or  two,  that  seemed  fully  half  an 
hour,  —  at  last  the  fore  sight  held  true  for  an  in- 
stant ;  and  I  pressed  the  trigger. 

The  exultation  of  that  moment  when  I  saw 
one  of  the  two  musk-oxen  stagger,  and  then  fall, 
I  know  I  shall  never  again  experience. 

The  report  of  my  rifle  startled  the  other  musk- 
ox  into  a  wild  gallop  over  a  ridge,  and  I  followed 
as  rapidly  as  I  could,  so  soon  as  I  made  sure  that 
the  other  was  really  down.  As  I  went  over  the 
ridge  I  caught  sight  of  the  remaining  musk-ox, 
and  shot  simultaneously  with  two  reports  on  my 
left,  which  I  later  discovered  to  have  come  from 
the  second  Indian  whom  I  had  passed  in  closing 
upon  Seco  on  the  run  to  the  first  view  of  the 
musk-oxen,  and  who  now  hove  in  sight  with  one 
dog,  as  the  second  musk-ox  dropped. 


28  The  Musk-ox 

I  found  on  returning  to  my  kill  that  it  was  a 
cow,  needless  to  say  a  sore  disappointment ;  and 
so,  although  pretty  well  tuckered  out,  I  again 
started  to  the  north  in  the  hope  that  I  might 
get  wind  of  the  other  two  of  the  four  after  which 
I  had  originally  started,  or  find  tracks  of  strag- 
glers from  the  main  herd.  Several  miles  I  went 
on,  but  finding  no  tracks,  and  darkness  coming 
down,  I  turned  to  make  my  way  back,  knowing 
that  the  Indians  would  follow  up  and  camp  by 
the  slain  musk-oxen  for  the  night.  But  as  I 
journeyed  I  suddenly  realized  that,  except  for 
going  in  a  southerly  direction,  I  really  had  no 
definite  idea  of  the  exact  direction  in  which  I 
was  travelling,  and  with  night  setting  in  and  a 
chilling  wind  blowing  I  knew  that  to  lose  my- 
self might  easily  mean  death.  So  I  turned  about 
on  my  tracks  and  followed  them  back  first  to 
where  I  had  turned  south,  and  thence  on  my 
back  tracks  to  where  the  musk-ox  lay.  It  was  a 
long  and  puzzling  task,  for  the  wind  had  always 
partly,  and  for  distances  entirely,  obliterated  the 
earlier  marks  of  my  snow-shoes. 

Nine  o'clock  came  before  I  finally  reached 
the  place  where  the  dead  quarry  lay;  and  there 
I  found  the  Indians  gnawing  on  raw  and  half- 


AT   BAY 


My  First  Kill  31 

frozen  musk-ox  fat.  Seco,  badly  frozen  and  hardly 
able  to  crawl  from  fatigue,  did  not  turn  up  until 
midnight;  and  it  was  not  until  he  arrived  that 
we  lighted  our  little  fire  of  sticks  and  had  our 
tea. 

Then  in  a  sixty-seven  degrees  below  zero  tem- 
perature we  rolled  up  in  our  furs,  while  the  dogs 
howled  and  fought  over  the  carcass  of  my  first 
musk-ox. 


II 

THE  PROVISION  QUESTION 

EXCEPT  in  the  summer,  when  the  caribou  are 
running  in  vast  herds,  venture  into  the  Barren 
Grounds  entails  a  struggle  with  both  cold  and 
hunger.  It  is  either  a  feast  or  a  famine;  more 
frequently  the  latter  than  the  former.  So  there 
was  nothing  extraordinary  in  being  upon  our 
third  day  without  food  at  the  first  musk-ox  killing 
to  which  I  have  referred.  Yet  the  lack  of  nour- 
ishment was  not  perhaps  as  trying  as  the  wind, 
which  seemed  to  sweep  directly  from  the  frozen 
seas,  so  strong  that  we  had  to  bend  low  in 
pushing  forward  against  it,  and  so  bitter  as  to 
cut  our  faces  cruelly.  Throughout  my  journey 
into  this  silent  land  of  the  lone  North  the  wind 
caused  me  more  real  suffering  than  the  semi- 
starvation  state  in  which  we  were  more  or  less 
continuously.  Indeed,  for  the  first  few  weeks  I 
had  utmost  difficulty  in  travelling;  the  wind  ap- 
peared to  take  the  very  breath  out  of  my  body 

32 


The  Provision  Question  33 

and  the  activity  out  of  my  muscles.  I  was  physi- 
cally in  magnificent  shape,  for  I  had  spent  a 
couple  of  weeks  at  Fort  Resolution,  on  Great 
Slave  Lake,  and  what  with  plenty  of  caribou 
meat  and  a  daily  run  of  from  ten  to  twenty  miles 
on  snow-shoes  by  way  of  keeping  in  training,  I 
was  about  as  fit  as  I  have  been  at  any  time  in 
my  life.  Therefore  the  severe  struggle  with  the 
wind  impressed  me  the  more.  But  the  novelty 
wore  off  in  a  couple  of  weeks,  and  though  the 
conditions  were  always  trying,  they  became  more 
endurable  as  I  grew  accustomed  to  the  daily 
combat. 

One  of  the  first  lessons  I  learned  was  to  keep 
my  face  free  from  covering,  and  also  as  clean 
shaven  as  was  possible  under  such  circumstances. 
It  makes  me  smile  now  to  remember  the  elaborate 
hood  arrangement  which  was  knitted  for  me  in 
Canada,  and  that  then  seemed  to  me  one  of 
the  most  important  articles  of  my  equipment. 
It  covered  the  entire  head,  ears,  and  neck,  with 
openings  only  for  eyes  and  mouth,  and  in 
town  I  had  viewed  it  as  a  great  find ;  but  I 
threw  it  away  before  I  got  within  a  thousand 
miles  of  the  Barren  Grounds.  The  reason  is 
obvious :  my  breath  turned  the  front  of  the  hood 


34  The  Musk-ox 

into  a  sheet  of  ice  before  I  had  run  three  miles; 
and  as  there  was  no  fire  in  the  Barren  Grounds  to 
thaw  it,  of  course  it  was  an  impossible  thing  to 
wear  in  that  region  and  a  poor  thing  in  any 
region  of  low  temperature.  After  other  experi- 
ments, I  found  the  simplest  and  most  comfortable 
head-gear  to  be  my  own  long  hair,  which  hung 
even  with  my  jaw,  bound  about  just  above  the 
ears  by  a  handkerchief,  and  the  open  hood  of 
my  caribou-skin  capote  drawn  forward  over  all. 
I  learned  a  great  many  things  about  hunting 
the  musk-ox  on  this  first  effort,  and  not  the 
least  memorable  was  the  lesson  of  how  very 
difficult  an  animal  it  is  to  score  on  without  the 
aid  of  a  dog.  This  is  solely  due  to  the  lie  of 
the  land.  The  physical  character  of  the  Barren 
Grounds  is  of  the  rolling  or  prairie  type.  Stand- 
ing on  the  first  elevation  after  passing  beyond 
the  last  timber,  you  look  north  across  a  great 
expanse  of  desert,  apparently  flat  country  dotted 
with  lakes  innumerable,  and  broken  here  and 
there  by  rock-topped  ridges.  When  you  get 
actually  into  the  country,  you  find  these  ridges, 
though  not  high,  are  yet  higher  than  they  look 
to  be,  and  the  travelling  in  general  very  rough. 
In  summer  there  is  no  travel  over  the  Barren 


The  Provision  Question  35 

Grounds,  except  by  canoe;  for  barring  the  gener- 
ous deposit  of  broken  rock,  it  is  practically  a  vast 
swamp.  In  the  winter,  of  course,  this  is  frozen 
over  and  topped  by  a  foot  or  a  foot  and  a  half  of 
snow.  It  was  a  surprise  to  find  no  greater  depth 
of  snow,  but  the  fall  is  light  in  the  very  far  North, 
and  the  continuous  gales  pack  and  blow  it  so  that 
what  remains  on  the  ground  is  firm  as  earth.  For 
that  reason  the  snow-shoes  used  in  the  Barren 
Grounds  are  of  the  smallest  pattern  used  any- 
where. They  are  from  six  to  eight  inches  wide, 
three  feet  long,  and,  because  of  the  dry  char- 
acter of  the  snow,  have  rather  closer  lacing  than 
any  other  shoe.  This  is  the  shoe  used  also 
throughout  the  Athabasca-Slave-Mackenzie  River 
sections.  The  snow  nowhere  along  this  line  of 
travel  is  over  a  couple  of  feet  in  depth,  is  light 
and  dry  and  the  "tripping"  shoe,  so  called,  is  the 
very  best  possible  for  such  kind  of  going.  In 
the  spring,  when  the  snow  is  a  little  heavier, 
the  lacing  is  more  open,  otherwise  the  shoe  is 
unchanged. 

It  is  well  known,  I  suppose,  that  the  Barren 
Grounds  are  devoid  absolutely  not  only  of  trees  but 
even  of  brush,  except  for  some  scattered,  stunted 
bushes  that  in  summer  are  to  be  found  in  occa- 


3  6  The  Musk-ox 

sional  spots  at  the  water's  edge,  but  may  not  be 
depended  upon  for  fuel.  From  Great  Slave  Lake 
north  to  the  timber's  edge  is  about  three  hundred 
miles;  beyond  that  is  a  stretch  of  country  per- 
haps of  another  hundred  miles,  suggestively 
called  the  Land  of  Little  Sticks  by  the  Indians, 
over  which  are  scattered  and  widely  separated 
little  patches  of  small  pine,  sometimes  of  an  acre 
in  extent,  sometimes  a  little  less  and  sometimes  a 
little  more.  They  seem  to  be  a  chain  of  wooded 
islands  in  this  desert  that  connect  the  main  tim- 
ber line  (which,  by  the  way,  does  not  end  abruptly, 
but  straggles  out  for  many  miles,  growing  thinner 
and  thinner  until  it  ends,  and  the  Land  of  Little 
Sticks  begins)  with  the  last  free  growth;  and  I 
never  found  them  nearer  together  than  a  good 
day's  journey.  About  three  or  four  days'  travel 
takes  you  through  this  Land  of  Little  Sticks  and 
brings  you  to  the  last  wood.  The  last  wood  that 
I  found  was  a  patch  of  about  four  or  five  acres 
with  trees  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter  at  their 
largest,  although  one  or  two  isolated  ones  were 
perhaps  as  large  as  five  or  six  inches.  Here  you 
take  the  fire-wood  for  your  trip  into  the  Barrens. 
I  have  been  often  asked  why  the  periods  of 
starvation  experienced  in  musk-ox  hunting  could 


The  Provision  Qiiestion  37 

not  be  obviated  by  carrying  food.  I  have  been 
asked,  in  a  word,  why  I  did  not  haul  supplies. 
The  patent  answer  is  that,  in  the  first  place,  I 
had  none  to  take ;  and  that,  in  the  second  place, 
if  I  had  had  a  car-load  at  Great  Slave  Lake  to 
draw  upon,  I  would  have  been  unable  to  carry 
provisions  with  me  into  the  Barren  Grounds.  It 
is  to  be  remembered  that  Great  Slave  Lake, 
where  I  outfitted  for  the  Barren  Grounds,  is  nine 
hundred  miles  from  the  railroad,  that  every 
pound  of  provision  is  freighted  by  water  usually, 
or  by  dog  sledge  on  emergency.  The  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  posts,  beginning  at  Athabasca 
Landing,  are  located  along  the  great  waterways 
—  Athabasca,  Slave,  Mackenzie  rivers  —  about 
every  two  hundred  miles.  These  are  small  trad- 
ing posts,  having  powder  and  ball,  and  things  to 
wear,  and  of  ornament,  rather  than  things  to  eat. 
Provisions  are  taken  in,  but  to  a  limited  extent, 
and  there  is  never  a  winter  which  does  not  see 
the  end  of  the  company's  supplies  before  the  ice 
breaks  up  and  the  first  boat  of  the  year  arrives. 
There  is  never  a  plenty  even  for  the  usual  de- 
mand, and  an  unusual  demand,  if  it  is  to  be  met, 
means  a  trimming  all  round.  In  snow-shoeing 
from  the  railroad  to  Great  Slave  Lake  I  secured 


38  The  Musk-ox 

fresh  sledge-dogs  and  men  and  provisions  at  every 
post,  which  carried  me  to  the  next  post  north, 
whence  men  and  dogs  returned  to  their  own 
post,  while  I  continued  north  with  a  new  supply. 
Although  there  was  comparative  plenty  at  the 
time  of  my  trip,  so  carefully  are  the  stores 
husbanded  that  I  never  could  get  supplies  more 
than  just  enough  to  carry  me  to  the  next  post; 
and  these  were  invariably  skimped,  so  that  for  a 
five  days'  journey  I  habitually  started  with  about 
four  days'  supplies. 

Thus  it  is  easy  to  see  why  there  were  no  pro- 
visions at  Great  Slave  Lake  for  me  to  draw  on ; 
and,  as  I  have  said,  had  there  been  an  abundance, 
it  would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to  carry 
them  (and  would  be  equally  so  for  any  one  else 
venturing  into  the  Barren  Grounds  at  the  same 
season  of  the  year)  simply  for  lack  of  transpor- 
tation, which,  after  all,  is  the  great  problem  of 
this  North  Country.  One  would  think  that  in  a 
land  where  the  only  means  of  travel  for  most 
of  the  year,  where  almost  the  very  existence  of 
the  people  depends  so  largely  on  sledge-dogs, 
there  would  be  an  abundance  of  them  and  of  the 
best  breed;  yet  the  truth  is  that  sledge-dogs  of 
any  kind  are  scarce  even  on  the  river  thorough- 


The  Provision  Question  39 

fares.  At  the  company's  posts  there  is  not  more 
than  one,  or  at  the  most  two,  spare  trains ;  among 
the  Indians,  upon  whom,  of  course,  I  had  to  rely 
when  I  outfitted  for  the  Barren  Grounds,  dogs 
are  even  scarcer.  Fort  Resolution  is  one  of  the 
most  important  posts  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany in  all  that  great  country,  and  yet  the 
settlement  itself  is  very  small,  numbering  per- 
haps fifty;  the  Indians — Dog  Ribs  and  Yellow 
Knives  —  living  in  the  woods  from  six  to  ten 
days'  travel  from  the  post.  I  found  it  not  only 
extremely  difficult  to  get  Indians  to  go  with  me, 
but  secured  seven  dog  teams  only  after  widest 
search.  This  reads  strange,  I  am  sure,  yet  it  was 
all  but  impossible  for  me  to  secure  the  number 
of  dogs  and  sledges  required  for  my  trip. 

But,  some  of  my  friends  have  asked,  with  seven 
sledges  and  twenty-eight  dogs,  surely  there  was 
room  to  carry  enough  provision  to  insure  against 
starvation  in  the  Barren  Grounds?  Not  at  all. 
There  was  not  room  to  carry  more  than  tea, 
tobacco,  our  sleeping-furs,  and  moccasins  and 
duffel  socks.  Moccasins  and  duffel  and  tobacco 
and  tea  are  the  highly  essential  articles  in  the 
Barren  Ground  outfit.  The  duffel  is  a  light  kind 
of  blanket  which  is  made  into  leggings  and  also 


4o  The  Musk-ox 

into  socks.  You  wear  three  pairs  inside  your 
moccasins,  and  at  night,  if  you  have  been  well 
advised,  you  put  next  to  your  feet  a  slipper  mocca- 
sin of  the  unborn  musk-ox,  hair  inside.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  in  the  Barren  Grounds  you 
have  no  fire  to  thaw  out  or  dry  frozen  and  wet 
clothing.  The  tiny  fire  you  do  have  is  only 
enough  to  make  tea.  Therefore  abundant  duffel 
and  moccasins  are  necessary,  first,  to  have  a  dry, 
fresh  change,  and  second,  to  replenish  them  as 
they  wear  out,  as  they  do  more  than  elsewhere, 
because  of  the  rocky  going.  As  for  tea  and  to- 
bacco, no  human  being  could  stand  the  cold 
and  the  hardship  of  a  winter  Barren  Ground  trip 
without  putting  something  hot  into  his  stomach 
every  day,  while  the  tobacco  is  at  once  a  stimu- 
lant and  a  solace.  The  space  left  on  the  sledge 
after  the  tea  and  tobacco  and  moccasins  and 
duffel  have  been  stowed  must  be  filled  with  the 
sticks  that  you  cut  into  pieces  (just  the  width  of 
the  sledge)  at  the  last  wood  on  the  edge  of  the 
Barren  Grounds  proper.  The  sledge  is  a  toboggan 
about  nine  feet  in  length  and  a  foot  and  a  half  in 
width,  made  of  two  or  three  birch  slats  held  to- 
gether by  crosspieces  lashed  on  to  them  with 
caribou  thongs,  turned  over  and  back  at  the  front 


The  Provision  Question  41 

into  a  dasher,  which  is  covered  by  a  caribou  apron 
(sometimes  decorated  in  crude  painting),  and  held 
in  its  curved  position  by  strings  of  babiche,  —  as 
the  thongs  of  caribou  skin  are  called,  —  the  same 
material  which  furnishes  the  snow-shoe  lacing. 
On  this  sledge  is  fitted  a  caribou-skin  body, 
about  seven  feet  in  length,  the  full  width  of  the 
sledge,  and  a  foot  and  a  half  deep.  Into  this  is 
stowed  the  load.  Then  the  top  sides  are  drawn 
together,  and  the  whole  lashed  firmly  to  the 
sledge  by  side  lines.  This  must  be  done  with 
the  care  and  security  bestowed  upon  the  dia- 
mond hitch  used  on  pack-animals ;  for  the 
sledge  in  the  course  of  a  day's  travel  is  roughly 
knocked  about. 

It  requires  no  further  explanation,  I  fancy,  to 
show  why  it  is  not  possible  to  carry  provisions. 

One  of  my  friends  on  my  return  from  this  trip 
suggested  the  possibility  of  shipping  dogs  into 
the  country;  of  doing,  in  a  word,  somewhat  as 
do  the  pole-hunting  expeditions.  That  might  be 
possible  to  a  wealthy  adventurer,  but,  even  so,  I 
should  consider  it  an  experiment  of  very  doubt- 
ful results,  simply  because  of  the  impossibility  of 
feeding  the  dogs  after  they  had  arrived  in  the 
country,  or  of  providing  for  them  after  you  had 


42  Tbe  Musk-ox 

started  into  the  Barren  Grounds.  There  is  a 
period  in  the  summer  at  Great  Slave  Lake  when 
any  number  of  dogs  could  be  sufficiently  fed  on 
the  quantities  of  fish  that  are  then  to  be  caught 
in  the  lake ;  and  no  doubt  enough  fish  could  be 
stored  to  feed  them  in  the  season  when  the  lakes 
are  frozen,  if  the  dogs  remained  at  the  post.  Even 
so,  that  would  keep  busy  a  number  of  especially 
engaged  fishermen.  But  when  you  started  for 
the  Barren  Grounds  with  all  these  dogs,  your 
feeding  problem  would  be  an  overwhelming  one 
indeed,  for  only  in  the  midsummer,  when  the 
caribou  are  to  be  found  in  large  herds,  wrould  it 
be  possible  to  kill  meat  for  a  great  many  dogs ; 
and  in  midsummer  you  would  not,  could  not, 
use  dogs  at  all ;  at  that  season  the  Barren 
Grounds  are  invaded  by  means  of  the  chain  of 
lakes  and  short  portages  which  begin  at  the 
northeastern  end  of  the  Great  Slave  Lake. 
Even  travelling  along  the  river  the  question  of 
dog  feed  is  a  serious  one,  and  you  are  obliged  to 
carry  the  fish  which  have  been  caught  the  pre- 
vious summer  and  stored  at  the  posts  in  great 
frozen  heaps.  It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  there 
is  no  easy  or  comfortable  way  of  getting  into 
the  Barren  Grounds.  It  would  be  impracticable 


The  Provision  Question  43 

to  do  other  than  rely  on  the  resources  at  hand 
and  go  into  the  silent  land  just  as  do  the  Indians. 
It  is  simply  impracticable  to  do  other  than  to 
depend  on  the  caribou  and  the  musk-oxen  for 
food  for  both  men  and  dogs. 


Ill 

SEASONS  AND  EQUIPMENT 

MIDSUMMER  is  the  season  when  the  hunter 
may  visit  the  Barren  Grounds  with  the  least  dis- 
comfort and  least  danger,  for  at  this  time  you  go 
by  canoe.  The  caribou  are  plentiful  and  the 
thermometer  rarely  goes  below  freezing-point. 
But  even  then  trials  are  many,  and  there  is  con- 
siderable danger  of  starvation.  The  mosquitoes 
are  a  pest  almost  beyond  endurance,  and  the 
caribou,  although  abundant,  are  down  toward  the 
Arctic  and  of  very  uncertain  movement.  Their 
course  of  migration  one  year  may  be  fifty  to  one 
hundred  miles  east  or  west  of  where  it  was  the 
preceding  year.  In  the  350,000  square  miles  of 
the  Barren  Grounds  one  may  easily  go  days 
without  finding  caribou  even  at  such  a  time  of 
plenty ;  and  not  to  find  them  might  easily  mean 
starvation. 

The  most  extensive  trips  into  the  Barren 
Grounds  for  musk-oxen  previous  to  my  venture 

44 


OUTNUMBERED 


Seasons  and  Equipment  47 

had  been  made  by  two  Englishmen,  Warburton 
Pike  and  Henry  Toke  Munn.  Mr.  Pike  (a  hunter 
of  experience  whose  book,  "Barren  Ground  of 
Northern  Canada,"  published  in  1892,  still  stands 
as  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  faithful  con- 
tributions to  the  literature  of  sport  and  adven- 
ture) spent  the  better  part  of  two  years  in  this 
country,  and  made  several  summer  and  autumn 
trips  into  the  Barren  Grounds.  He  made  one 
summer  trip  solely  for  the  purpose  of  killing  and 
cacheing  caribou,  which  he  might  draw  upon  in 
the  next  autumn  musk-ox  hunt  when  the  caribou 
were  scarce.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this  prepa- 
ration, he  had  a  very  hard  time  of  it  in  the  autumn 
hunt  and  was  unable  to  accomplish  all  that  he 
set  out  to  do.  He  did  get,  however,  the  musk-ox 
he  went  after.  On  Munn's  autumn  trip,  although 
there  were  yet  to  be  had  some  fish  in  the  lakes, 
he  and  his  party  and  their  dogs  had  a  starving 
time  of  it  indeed.  I  particularize  these  two  trips 
to  instance  the  difficulties  of  hunting  in  the 
Barren  Grounds,  even  when  the  conditions  are 
the  most  favorable  that  may  be  had. 

The  Indians  time  their  hunting  trips  into  the 
Barren  Grounds  by  the  movement  of  the  caribou, — 
in  the  early  summer,  about  May,  when  the  caribou 


48  The  Musk-ox 

begin  their  migration  from  the  woods  down  to 
the  Arctic  Ocean ;  and  in  the  early  autumn  when 
the  caribou  are  fairly  well  distributed  and  are 
working  back  toward  the  wood  again.  Caribou 
are  absolutely  essential  to  penetration  of  the 
Barren  Grounds,  because  from  the  woods  to 
where  musk-oxen  are  found  is  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, and  no  possible  meat  except  that  supplied 
by  these  members  of  the  deer  family.  Nor  is  a 
trip  into  the  Barren  Grounds  always  rewarded 
with  musk-oxen.  Many  Indian  parties  have  gone 
in  and  failed  to  see  even  a  track,  and  many  others 
have  skirmished  along  the  edge,  dreading  to 
plunge  into  the  interior,  and  hopeful  perhaps  of 
a  stray  ox.  The  Indians,  who  do  not  now  hunt 
musk-oxen  as  much  as  formerly  owing  to  the  les- 
sened demand  for  the  pelt,  usually  go  in  parties 
of  four  to  six ;  never  less  than  four,  because  they 
would  be  unable  to  carry  a  wood  supply  adequate 
to  getting  far  enough  into  the  Barren  Grounds  for 
reasonable  hope  of  securing  the  game ;  and  rarely 
more  than  six,  because  when  they  have  got  as  far 
into  the  country  as  six  sledges  of  wood  will  per- 
mit, they  have  either  got  what  they*  want,  or 
they  have  had  enough  of  freezing  and  starving 
to  impel  a  start  homeward.  Only  the  hardiest 


Seasons  and  Equipment  49 

make  the  trip ;  to  be  a  musk-ox  hunter  and  an 
enduring  snow-shoe  runner,  is  the  dearest  ambi- 
tion of  and  the  greatest  height  to  which  the  Far 
Northland  Indian  can  attain. 

Before  I  started  on  my  trip  I  heard  much  of 
pemmican,  and  fancied  it  procurable  at  almost 
any  northern  post,  as  well  as  supposing  it  a 
reliable  source  of  provender.  The  truth  is,  how- 
ever, that  pemmican  is  a  very  rare  article  these 
days  in  that  section  of  the  country,  and  in  fact 
is  not  to  be  found  anywhere  south  of  Great 
Slave  Lake,  and  only  there  on  occasion.  This 
is  largely  because  the  caribou  are  not  so  numer- 
ous as  formerly,  and  the  Indians  prefer  to  keep 
the  grease  for  home  consumption,  when  at  ease 
in  their  autumn  camps.  Even  among  the  Indians 
around  Great  Slave  Lake  pemmican  is  used  but 
very  little  in  the  ordinary  tripping  (travelling)- 
It  has  been  substituted  by  pounded  caribou 
meat,  which  is  carried  in  little  caribou-skin  bags 
and  eaten  with  grease.  One  can  never  get  too 
much  of  grease  in  the  Northland,  where  it  is 
eaten  as  some  consume  sugar  in  the  civilized 
world.  And  this  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the 
burning  up  of  the  tissues  in  cold  dry  climate 
and  the  absence  of  bread  and  vegetables ;  for 


50  Tbe  Musk-ox 

meat  and  tea  are  the  sole  articles  of  food. 
Coffee,  by  the  way,  is  a  luxury  to  be  found  only 
occasionally  on  the  table  of  a  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany post  factor. 

There  is  so  much  to  be  told,  if  one  is  to 
give  an  adequate  idea  of  what  hunting  the  musk- 
ox  implies,  that  I  find  it  somewhat  difficult, 
without  going  to  considerable  length,  to  cover  the 
entire  field.  I  suppose  it  is  because  the  musk-ox 
is  the  most  inaccessible  animal  in  the  whole  wide 
world,  that  there  is  so  much  curiosity  concerning 
the  conditions  of  hunting  it,  and  so  much  interest 
in  the  recital  of  one's  experience.  From  time  to 
time  a  great  many  letters  come  to  me  filled  with 
questions,  and  I  am  and  shall  always  be  happy 
to  add  in  personal  letters  any  data  I  may  have 
overlooked  here.  I  am  trying,  however,  to  make 
this  chapter  thoroughly  practical  and  intelligible 
to  those  with  any  thought  of  ever  seeking  the 
musk-ox  in  this  region.  The  easiest  way,  as  I 
have  said,  is  to  go  by  Hudson's  Bay  Trading 
boat,  which  leaves  Athabasca  Landing  as  soon 
as  the  ice  breaks,  down  to  Resolution.  If  you 
have  arranged  beforehand  by  letter  with  the 
factor  at  Resolution,  you  will  arrive  there  in 
time  to  make  a  summer  hunt  into  the  Barren 


Seasons  and  Equipment  51 

Grounds,  which  is  reached,  as  I  have  shown,  by 
means  of  short  portages  and  a  chain  of  lakes, 
starting  from  the  northeast  corner  of  Great  Slave 
Lake,  and  following  Lockhart's  River.  If  you 
are  not  delayed  and  do  not  get  too  far  into  the 
Barren  Grounds,  you  would  stand  a  chance  of  get- 
ting out  and  back  to  Athabasca  Landing  on  the 
water ;  but  everything  would  have  to  go  your 
way  and  the  trip  be  most  expeditious  in  order 
to  do  this.  If  you  were  not  out  in  time  to  go 
by  open  water,  it  would  necessitate  a  nine  hun- 
dred mile  snow-shoe  trip,  or  laying  over  until  the 
following  spring  when  the  ice  broke  up  again. 
The  Canadian  government  has  protected  musk- 
oxen  for  several  years,  and  in  order  to  hunt,  one 
must  be  provided  with  a  special  permit  from  that 
government.  The  protection  of  the  musk-ox 
seems  scarcely  necessary,  for  although  the  polar 
expeditions  have  slaughtered  a  great  many  on 
Greenland  and  on  the  Arctic  islands,  the  killing 
of  them  in  the  Barren  Grounds  proper  never  has 
been,  and  never  will  be,  sufficiently  large  to  give 
concern  to  the  Canadian  government.  The  musk- 
ox  is  of  a  genus  that  seems  to  be  a  declining  type 
among  the  world's  animals,  but  if  extinction 
comes  to  those  in  the  Barren  Grounds,  it  cer- 


52  The  Musk-ox 

tainly  will  never  be  through  their  killing  by  white 
men  or  Indians.  If  any  great  value  attached 
to  the  hide,  it  might  be  another  story;  but  the 
truth  is  that  the  musk-ox  robe  is  not  a  valuable 
fur,  is  sought  after,  indeed,  but  very  little.  It  is 
too  coarse  to  wear,  and  the  only  use  to  which  it 
seems  admirably  adapted  is  as  a  sleigh-robe. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  Indians  for 
the  summer  hunt,  for  then  the  labor  is  slight  as 
compared  with  snow-shoeing,  and  there  need  be 
no  considerable  worry  about  provisions.  Nor 
would  there  be  but  very  little  trouble  in  secur- 
ing Indians  for  the  early  autumn.  The  great 
difficulty  I  encountered  in  organizing  my  party 
was  due  solely  to  the  time  of  year  in  which  I 
made  the  venture.  I  was  not  particularly  seeking 
hardship,  but  I  had  to  go  when  I  could  get  away 
from  my  professional  duties,  and  that  brought 
me  to  Great  Slave  Lake  the  first  of  March. 
February  and  March  are  the  two  severest  months 
of  the  entire  year  in  the  Barren  Grounds.  It  is 
the  time  when  the  storms  are  at  their  height  and 
the  thermometer  at  its  lowest.  No  one  had  ever 
been  into  the  Barren  Grounds  at  that  period, 
and  the  Indians,  who  are  very  loath  to  venture 
into  an  unknown  country  or  at  an  unusual  season, 


Seasons  and  Equipment  53 

were  disinclined  to  accompany  me.  Indeed  it 
was  only  by  diplomatic  handling  of  the  leader 
and  through  the  extremely  kind  offices  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  post  factor,  Gaudet, 
that  I  ever  succeeded  in  getting  started. 

Perhaps  it  will  serve  those  contemplating  such 
a  trip  one  day,  to  record  here  my  personal  equip- 
ment. 

One  winter  caribou-skin  robe,  lined  with  a  pair 
of  4-point  Hudson's  Bay  Company  blankets. 

One  winter  caribou-skin  capote  (coat  with  hood). 

One  heavy  sweater. 

Two  pairs  of  moose  fur-lined  mittens. 

One  pair  moose-skin  gloves.  (Worn  inside  of 
mittens.) 

One  pair  strouds  (loose-fitting  leggins). 

Three  silk  handkerchiefs. 

Eight  pairs  of  moccasins. 

Eight  pairs  of  duffel  socks. 

One  copper  kettle  (for  boiling  tea). 

One  cup. 

45-90  Winchester  half  magazine  rifle. 

Hunting-knife.     (See  cut  page  45.) 

Compass. 

Spirit  thermometer. 

10  pounds  of  tea. 


54 


The  Musk-ox 


1 2  pounds  of  tobacco. 

Several  boxes  of  matches. 

Flint  and  steel  and  tinder. 

Two  bottles  of  mustang  liniment  (which 
promptly  froze  solid  and  remained  so;  it  was 
fortunate  I  did  not  have  occasion  to  use  it). 

In  addition  I  carried,  in  case  of  emergency, 
such  as  amputation  of  frozen  toes  or  other 
equally  unpleasant  incidents,  —  a  surgeon's  knife, 
antiseptic  lozenges,  bandages,  and  iodoform.  Of 
this  outfit  no  two  articles  were  more  important 
perhaps  than  the  moose-skin  gloves  and  the 
strouds.  The  gloves  are  worn  inside  the  mittens 
and  worn  always ;  one  never  goes  barehanded  in 
the  Barren  Grounds  at  any  time,  day  or  night, 
if  one  is  wise.  The  strouds  (reaching  above  the 
knee  and  held  up  by  a  thong  and  loop  attached 
to  waist  belt)  catch  the  flying  and  freezing 
snow  dust  from  the  snow-shoes,  thus  protecting 
the  trousers.  I  forgot  to  add,  by  the  way,  that 
I  wore  Irish  frieze  trousers,  cut  small  at  the 
bottoms  so  as  to  be  easily  tied  about  the  ankles. 
My  underwear  was  of  the  heaviest,  and  I  carried 
a  pair  of  moccasin  slippers  made  of  the  unborn 
musk-ox  calf,  fur  inside.  If  you  ever  make  a  trip 
after  musk-oxen,  do  not  bring  in  anything  from 


Seasons  and  Equipment  55 

the  outside,  except  your  rifle,  ammunition,  and 
knife.  Everything  else  you  should  secure  at  the 
outfitting  post.  There  is  nothing  in  this  world 
that  equals  the  caribou-skin  capote  for  travel  in 
the  Northland ;  it  is  very  light  and  practically 
impervious  to  the  wind.  You  will  also  carry 
with  you  a  tepee,  made  of  caribou  skin.  This 
tepee,  or  lodge,  is  not  carried  for  your  comfort 
or  protection  against  inclement  weather,  but 
entirely  for  the  protection  of  your  camp-fire ;  be- 
cause the  furious  wind  that  sweeps  the  Barren 
Grounds  in  winter  would  not  only  blow  out  your 
flame  but  blow  away  your  wood  as  well.  The 
poles  for  your  lodge  you  cut  at  the  last  wood 
and  lash  to  the  side  of  the  sledge. 

In  summer  time  the  question  of  transportation 
is  much  simpler;  you  go  by  canoe  and  you  do 
not  need  strouds  or  the  winter  caribou-skin 
capote.  There  is  a  very  great  difference  between 
the  winter  and  the  summer  caribou  pelts,  and 
the  latter  is  used  for  the  summer  trips.  Nor  do 
you  need  a  tepee  in  summer. 


IV 

METHOD  OF  HUNTING 

AMONG  the  Indians  that  live  south  and  west 
of  the  Barren  Grounds  (no  Indian  lives  in  the 
Barren  Grounds),  the  method  of  hunting  the 
musk-ox  is  practically  the  same,  and,  as  I  have 
shown  in  the  early  part  of  this  paper,  it  is  be- 
cause the  Indians  lack  high  hunting  skill  and 
because  their  dogs  are  neither  trained  nor  coura- 
geous that  bigger  kills  are  not  made.  White 
hunters  and  trained  dogs  could  practically  wipe 
out  every  herd  of  musk-oxen  they  encountered ; 
for  while  it  is  true  that  musk-oxen  give  you  a  long 
run  once  you  have  sighted  them,  yet  when  you  get 
up  to  them,  when  the  dogs  have  brought  them  to 
bay,  it  is  almost  like  shooting  cattle  in  a  corral. 
There  is  always  a  long  run.  I  think  I  never  had 
less  than  three  miles,  and  in  the  first  hunt  which 
I  have  described,  I  must  have  run  nine  or  ten. 
But,  as  I  say,  when  you  get  up  to  them  it  is  easy, 
for  they  will  stand  to  the  dogs  so  long  as  the 

56 


EAST- GREENLAND    MUSK-OX   CALF 

Collected  at  Fort  Conger  by  Commander  R.  E.  Peary,  U.S.N.     (From  a  photograph 
provided  by  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


HEAD   OF   A  TWO-YEAR-OLD    MUSK-OX    BULL 

Killed  and  photographed  in  the  Barren  Grounds  by  the  author.  The  horns  are  just 
beginning  to  show  a  downward  tendency.  Hair  over  forehead  is  gray,  short,  and 
somewhat  curly.  The  background  is  the  tepee  referred  to  in  the  text. 


Method  of  Hunting  59 

dogs  bay  them.  And  all  this  running  would  be 
unnecessary  if  the  Indians  exercised  more  hunt- 
ing skill  and  judgment. 

Although  the  prairie  form  of  the  country  is 
not  altogether  the  best  for  stalking,  yet  one  could 
stalk  comparatively  near  a  herd  before  turning 
the  dogs  loose.  The  Indians  never  do  this,  and, 
in  addition,  the  dogs  set  up  a  yelping  and  a  howl- 
ing the  moment  they  catch  sight  of  the  quarry. 
This,  of  course,  starts  off  the  musk-oxen,  which 
invariably  choose  the  roughest  part  of  the  coun- 
try, no  doubt  feeling,  and  rightly,  too,  that  their 
pursuers  will  have  the  more  difficult  time  follow- 
ing. Indian  dogs  are  not  always  to  be  relied 
upon,  for  they  have  a  disposition  to  hunt  in  a 
group,  and  your  entire  bunch  of  dogs  is  apt  to 
stop  and  hold  only  three  or  four  stragglers  of 
the  herd  while  the  remainder  of  the  musk-oxen 
escape.  Sometimes  when  they  stop  practically 
the  entire  herd,  the  dogs  are  very  likely,  before 
you  come  up  to  them,  to  shift,  leaving  their 
original  position  and  gradually  drawing  together ; 
perhaps,  the  whole  pack  of  dogs  finally  holding 
only  half  a  dozen,  while  the  rest  of  the  musk-oxen 
have  run  on.  Musk-oxen,  when  stopped,  invaria- 
bly form  a  circle  with  their  sterns  in  and  their 


60  The  Musk-ox 

heads  out;  it  matters  not  whether  the  herd  is 
thirty  or  half  a  dozen,  their  action  is  the  same. 
If  there  are  only  two,  they  stand  stern  to  stern, 
facing  out.  I  have  seen  a  single  musk-ox  back 
up  against  a  rock.  Apparently  they  feel  safe 
only  when  they  get  their  sterns  up  against  some- 
thing. 

Hunting  musk-oxen  on  the  Arctic  Coast  or 
the  Arctic  islands  after  the  manner  of  the  polar 
expeditions,  is  a  much  simpler  proposition. 
There  the  hunters  are  always  comparatively  near 
their  base  of  supplies,  and,  from  all  accounts,  the 
musk-oxen  are  more  numerous  than  they  are  in 
the  interior.  According  to  Frederick  Schwatka, 
the  Innuits  hunt  musk-oxen  with  great  skill. 
They  hitch  their  dogs  to  the  sledge  differently 
from  the  method  of  the  Indians  to  the  south. 
The  southern  Indians  hitch  their  four  dogs  in 
tandem  between  two  common  traces,  one  on  each 
side ;  while  each  Eskimo  dog  has  his  own  single 
trace,  which  is  hitched  independently  to  the 
sledge.  When  the  Innuits  sight  the  musk-oxen, 
each  hunter  takes  the  dogs  of  his  sledge,  and 
holding  their  traces  in  his  hand,  starts  after  the 
game.  The  wisdom  of  this  method  is  twofold : 
in  the  first  place  it  immeasurably  aids  the  running 


Method  of  Hunting  61 

hunter,  for  the  four  or  five  straining  dogs  practi- 
cally pull  him  along;  indeed,  Schwatka  says  that 
when  these  Innuits  come  to  a  hill  they  squat 
and  slide  down,  throwing  themselves  at  full 
length  upon  the  snow  of  the  ascending  bank,  up 
which  the  excited  dogs  drag  them  without  any 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  hunter.  I  should  like 
to  add  here  that  if  such  a  plan  were  pursued  in 
the  Barren  Grounds  over  the  rocky  ridges,  the 
remains  of  the  hunter  would  not  be  interested 
in  musk-ox  hunting  by  the  time  the  top  of  a 
ridge  was  reached.  Seriously,  the  chief  value  of 
hunting  in  this  style  is  that  the  hunter  controls 
his  four  to  six  dogs,  the  usual  number  of  the 
Eskimo  sledge.  When  they  have  caught  up  with 
the  musk-ox  herd,  he  then  looses  them  and  he  is 
there  to  begin  action.  The  Eskimo  dogs  are 
very  superior  in  breed  to  those  used  by  the 
Indians  farther  south,  and  are  trained  as  well 
to  run  mute. 

The  chances  of  getting  musk-oxen  in  the  Barren 
Grounds  are  not  so  good  in  summer  as  in  winter, 
because  travelling  by  canoe  you  are,  of  course, 
bound  to  keep  to  the  chain  of  lakes,  and  your 
course  is  therefore  prescribed,  it  being  impossible 
to  travel  over  the  land  at  will  as  it  is  in  winter 


62  Tbe  Musk-ox 

when  all  is  frozen.  One  day's  hunting  is  about 
like  another.  There  is  nothing  to  kindle  the 
eye  of  the  nature  lover.  In  winter  it  is  like 
travelling  over  a  great  frozen  sea;  in  summer 
it  is  a  great  desolate  waste  of  moss  and  lichen, 
dotted  with  lakes  and  rock-topped  ridges,  which 
observe  no  one  or  special  form  of  direction. 
There  is  a  black  moss  that  the  Indians  sometimes 
burn  if  they  can  find  it  dry  enough,  and  a  little 
shrub  that  furnishes  a  bitter  tea  if  the  tea  of  civili- 
zation has  run  out.  Nearly  all  of  the  lakes  have 
fish,  and  a  hunter  ought  really,  with  experience 
and  judgment,  to  go  in  and  out  in  summer  time 
without  suffering  any  excessive  starvation.  War- 
burton  Pike,  who  has  studied  the  Barren  Grounds 
in  summer  time  more  thoroughly  than  any  other 
man  living,  reports  spots  covered  with  wild 
flowers  that  grow  to  no  height  but  in  compara- 
tive profusion  and  some  beauty. 

The  distance  you  make  in  a  summer  day  of 
Barren  Grounds  travel  may  depend  entirely  on 
your  inclination,  for  with  the  fish  and  the  moving 
caribou  you  are  fairly  well  assured  against  hunger, 
and  the  weather  is  comparatively' warm  and  per- 
mits of  lingering  along  the  route.  It  is  quite 
another  story  in  the  winter,  for  then  food  is  always 


Method  of  Hunting  63 

a  problem,  and  every  day  draws  on  your  slender 
supply  of  wood.  Of  course  the  farther  you  pene- 
trate, the  nearer  you  get  to  the  Arctic  Coast, 
the  more  likely  you  are  to  see  musk-oxen;  and 
the  faster  you  travel,  of  course,  the  farther  you 
can  penetrate.  We  averaged  about  twenty 
miles  a  day.  That  means  that  we  kept  busy 
every  hour  from  the  time  we  started  until  we 
camped.  The  hour  of  starting  depended  very 
largely  upon  whether  or  not  there  was  a  moon. 
If  there  was  a  moon,  we  would  get  started  so 
as  to  be  well  under  way  by  daylight,  which  when 
we  first  entered  the  Barren  Grounds  would  be 
about  nine  o'clock.  If  there  was  no  moon,  we 
waited  for  daylight.  There  always  was  a  moon 
unless  it  stormed ;  but  it  stormed  most  of  the 
time.  When  there  was  a  moon,  however,  it  was 
always  full.  Travelling  from  Lac  La  Biche  to 
Great  Slave  Lake  on  the  frozen  rivers,  where  it 
was  a  mere  question  of  getting  from  one  post  to 
another,  we  used  to  start  about  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  the  sun  coming  up  about  ten 
o'clock  and  setting  at  about  three,  and  darkness 
falling  almost  immediately  thereafter.  In  this 
river  travelling  I  averaged  a  full  thirty-five  miles 
a  day  for  the  (about)  nine  hundred  miles. 


64  The  Musk-ox 

I  think  the  most  trying  hour  of  the  twenty-four 
in  the  Barren  Grounds  day  was  at  the  camping 
time  in  the  afternoon.  Beniah  invariably  chose 
the  highest  and  most  exposed  position  to  be 
found,  that  our  tepee  might  be  the  more  visible 
to  the  scouts,  kept  out  all  day  on  either  side  look- 
ing for  caribou,  or  musk-oxen ;  and  there  was 
always  the  delaying  discussion  of  the  Indians 
amongst  themselves,  while  I,  chilled  to  the  bone 
by  the  inaction,  stood  around  awaiting  the  close 
of  the  argument  before  it  was  possible  to  get  to 
the  business  of  camp-making.  Because  the  snow 
was  packed  so  hard  as  to  be  impossible  to  shovel 
away  with  the  snow-shoe,  a  rocky  site  was  always 
sought,  where  we  fitted  our  bodies  to  the  uneven 
ground  as  best  we  could.  With  the  camp  site 
definitely  chosen,  a  circle  was  made  of  the  sledges, 
touching  head  and  tail ;  then  three  lodge  poles, 
tied  together  at  the  top,  were  set  up  in  the  form 
of  a  triangle,  with  the  ends  stuck  into  the  sledges 
to  give  them  firm  footing,  and  the  four  remaining 
poles  placed  so  as  to  make  a  cone  of  the  triangle. 
Over  and  around  this  was  stretched  the  caribou- 
skin  tepee,  with  the  bottom  edge  drawn  down 
and  outside  the  sledges.  Blocks  of  snow  were 
then  cut  and  banked  up  around  the  outside  of 


£  .2 


<L>    J3 
"C     >, 


Method  of  Hunting  67 

the  tepee  and  against  the  sledges;  all  this  by 
way  of  firmly  anchoring  the  tepee,  which  set  so 
low  that  one's  head  and  shoulders  would  be  in 
the  open  when  standing  upright  in  the  centre ; 
but  that  was  of  no  consequence,  the  lodge  being 
set  up  merely  as  a  protection  to  the  fire.  A 
short  pole,  also  carried  along  from 
the  last  wood,  was  lashed  from 
side  to  side  of  the  tepee,  on  to  the 
lodge  poles  proper,  and  from  this, 
attached  by  a  piece  of  babiche  and 
a  forked  stick,  hung  the  kettle. 
Then,  all  being  ready,  four  or  five 
sticks  were  taken  from  the  sledges 
equally,  and  split  into  kindling 
wood  with  the  heavy  knife  one 
needs  to  carry  in  musk-ox  hunt- 
ing. Of  COUrse  the  fire  furnished  Author's  Barren 

Ground    Hunting 

no  warmth;  it  was  not  built  for  Knife  and  AX  (14 
that  purpose ;  it  was  simply  to  boil 
the  tea,  and  perhaps  I  can  best  give  an  idea  of 
its  size  in  saying  that  by  the  time  the  snow  in 
the  kettle  had  been  melted  to  water  and  the 
water  begun  to  boil,  —  the  fire  was  exhausted. 
While  it  blazed  and  the  tea  was  making,  always 
the  close  circle  of  seven  hungry  men,  shoulder 


68  The  Musk-ox 

to  shoulder,  squatted  around  the  light  in  the 
fancy  that  some  heat  must  come  from  that  little 
jumping  flame.  Outside  that  other  circle  of 
sledges,  the  dogs  snuffed  and  sniffed  and 
howled.  Once  I  took  off  my  gloves,  with  the 
thought  of  warming  my  fingers.  I  made  no 
second  experiment  of  the  kind. 

Having  drunk  the  tea,  we  rolled  up  in  our 
fur  robes,  lying  side  by  side  around  the  tepee, 
with  feet  toward  the  fire  and  head  against  the 
sledge,  knees  into  the  back  of  the  man  next 
you,  and  snow-shoes  under  your  head,  away 
from  the  dogs  that  would  eat  the  lacing.  This 
was  only  preparation  for  sleep ;  actual  sleep, 
even  to  men  as  tired  as  we  were,  never  came 
until  the  dogs  had  finished  fighting  over  us; 
for  so  soon  as  we  were  rolled  in  our  robes  the 
dogs  invariably  poured  into  the  tepee.  As  there 
were  twenty-eight  dogs,  and  the  lodge  about 
seven  feet  in  diameter  at  its  base,  I  need  not 
further  describe  the  situation.  Truth  is,  that  no 
hour  in  the  day  or  night  was  more  miserable  than 
this,  when  these  half-starved  brutes  fought  over 
and  on  top  of  us  before  they  finally  settled  down 
upon  us.  In  extreme  cold  weather  a  dog  curled 
up  at  your  feet  or  at  your  back  is  not  unpleas- 


Method  of  Hunting  69 

ant;  but  to  have  one  lying  on  your  head,  an- 
other on  your  shoulders  or  hips,  or  perhaps  a 
third  on  your  feet,  and  you  lying  on  your  side 
on  rocky,  uneven  ground  —  take  my  word  for  it, 
the  experience  is  not  happy.  Of  course  you  are 
entirely  wrapped  up,  head  and  arms  as  well,  in 
your  sleeping  robe ;  if  you  rise  up  to  knock 
the  dogs  off,  you  open  your  robe  to  the  cold: 
and  the  dogs  would  be  back  on  top  of  you  again 
just  as  soon  as  you  had  lain  down. 

It  is  all  in  the  Musk-ox   game ;   and  so  you 
endure. 


V 

THE  MUSK-OX 

ALTHOUGH  there  is  nothing  in  the  appearance 
or  in  the  life  of  the  musk-ox  to  suggest  romance, 
yet  the  Indians  and  the  Eskimo  surround  it  with 
much  mystery.  They  say  it  is  not  like  other 
animals,  that  it  is  cunning  and  plays  tricks  on 
them,  that  it  is  not  safe  to  approach,  that  it  under- 
stands what  is  said.  The  Indians  among  whom 
I  travelled  have  a  tradition  that  long  years  ago  a 
woman  wandered  into  the  Barren  Grounds,  was 
lost,  and  finally  turned  into  a  musk-ox  by  the 
"enemy."  Perhaps  this  accounts  for  the  occa- 
sional habit  these  Indians  have  when  pursuing 
musk-oxen  of  talking  to  them,  instructing  them 
as  to  the  direction  of  their  flight,  etc.  Several 
authors  maintain  that  these  Indians,  when  hunt- 
ing, do  not  talk  to  other  animals;  but  I  have 
heard  them  jabbering  while  hunting  caribou  after 
the  same  manner  they  do  when  running  after 
musk-oxen.  Why  the  Indians  should  consider 

70 


o 


UJ 


The  Musk-ox  73 

the  musk-ox  tricky  or  ferocious,  appears  to 
me  to  be  the  only  mysterious  element  in  the 
discussion ;  a  less  ferocious  looking  animal  for 
its  size  would,  it  seems  to  me,  be  impossible 
to  find.  Several  Arctic  explorers  who  have 
written  on  the  musk-ox  also  refer  to  it  as  "  for- 
midable "  appearing  and  "  ferocious,"  but  those 
are  the  last  adjectives  that  I  should  apply  to  the 
creature.  The  Indians  and  some  of  the  Arctic 
authors  also  say  that  it  is  dangerous  to  approach, 
especially  when  wounded.  My  experience  does 
not  indorse  that  statement.  We  encountered 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  musk-oxen, 
killing  forty-seven,  and  I  did  not  see  one  that 
even  suggested  the  charging  proclivities  for  which 
it  is  given  credit.  They  stand  with  lowered  heads, 
making  a  hook  at  the  dogs  that  are  nearest,  and 
on  occasion  making  a  movement  forward,  prac- 
tically a  bluff  at  charging,  but  I  never  saw  one 
really  charge  a  dog,  much  less  a  man.  I  do  not 
believe  they  can  be  induced  to  break  the  circle 
they  invariably  form,  as  they  would,  of  course,  do 
in  charging.  On  one  occasion  I  wounded  a  musk- 
ox  badly  enough  to  enable  me  to  run  him  over 
and  around  a  series  of  short  ridges  finally  to  a 
standstill.  He  was  entirely  alone,  and  I  was 


74  The  Musk-ox 

without  a  dog,  and  when  I  had  got  to  within 
seventy-five  feet  of  him  he  suddenly,  stopped 
running  and  faced  me,  setting  his  stern  against  a 
rock  —  or,  rather,  over  it,  for  it  was  quite  a  small 
rock.  I  walked  up  to  within  about  thirty  or  forty 
feet  of  him,  and  took  a  head  shot.  I  thought 
to  see  if  I  could  reach  his  brain,  but  the  boss  of 
his  great  frontal  horn  protects  it,  except  for  the 
small  opening  of  an  inch  where  the  horns  are 
divided.  Then  with  an  idea  of  putting  a  ball 
back  of  his  shoulder  or  back  of  his  ear,  I  tried 
to  get  on  his  side,  but  as  I  moved,  he  moved, 
always  keeping  his  head  straight  at  me,  and  we 
made  several  complete  circles ;  yet,  in  that  time, 
—  I  suppose  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  —  he  never 
offered  to  charge.  If  a  straggling  dog  had  not 
come  my  way  and  attracted  the  bull's  attention, 
I  probably  never  would  have  got  the  chance  of 
a  shoulder  shot.  Mr.  Pike,  whom,  of  living  men, 
I  consider  to  have  made  the  most  extended  study 
of  the  musk-ox,  agrees  entirely  with  my  view  of 
the  animal  so  far  as  its  charging  is  concerned. 
Perhaps  the  musk-ox  might  charge  if  you  walked 
up  and  pulled  his  ear,  but  I  doubt  if  he  would 
under  less  provocation,  and  really,  I  do  not  feel 
so  certain  that  he  would  even  then.  He  seems  a 


The  Musk-ox  75 

stupid,  mild  creature,  —  anything  but  "  ferocious." 
In  one  little  band  of  eight  which  we  had  sepa- 
rated from  the  main  herd  and  killed,  a  yearling 
calf  ran  against  my  legs,  seemingly  seeking  pro- 
tection from  the  dogs  precisely  as  a  young  sheep 
would. 

The  musk-ox  appears,  in  fact,  to  be  a  veritable 
link  between  the  ox  and  the  sheep.  It  has  the 
rudimentary  tail,  the  molar  teeth  structure,  the 
hairy  muzzle,  and  the  intestines  of  the  sheep ; 
while  its  short  and  wide  canon-bones  are  like 
those  of  the  ox,  and  differ  widely  from  either 
sheep  or  goat.  The  hoofs  are  large,  with  curved 
toes  and  somewhat  concave  underneath,  like  the 
caribou  hoof,  which  facilitates  climbing  rocky 
ridges  and  scraping  away  the  snow  from  their 
only  food,  the  lichen  and  the  moss,  for  which 
purpose  their  horns  are  also  admirably  adapted. 
Mr.  Rhodes  has  advanced  the  theory  of  the 
existence  of  a  transition  between  the  musk-ox 
and  the  bison,  but  the  structure  of  the  molar 
teeth  and  the  rudimentary  tail  convince  Profes- 
sor R.  Lydekker,  perhaps  the  foremost  scientific 
authority,  of  the  impossibility  of  there  being  any 
manner  of  relationship  between  the  two  groups. 
Scientifically,  the  musk-ox  is  of  the  genus  Ovi- 


76  The  Musk-ox 

BUS,  divided  into  O.  moschatus,  the  Barren  Grounds 
and  Greenland  type,  the  O.  wardi  (Lydekker), 
and  O.  bombifrons,  otherwise  known  as  the  Har- 
lan's  musk-ox,  an  extinct  type  that,  in  a  word, 
differed  from  the  present  living  type  largely  in 


Forefoot  of  Barren  Grounds  Musk-ox.     %  actual  size 

shape  of  the  horns,  which  did  not  have  the  down- 
ward curve  of  those  in  existence,  nor  did  the 
curve  of  the  horns  come  closely  to  the  head  as 
they  do  now.  Until  1898  O.  moschatus  was  the 
only  existing  type  known  to  either  hunters  or 
scientists.  In  that  year,  however,  Lieutenant 
Peary,  the  Arctic  explorer,  killed  in  Bache  Pen- 


The  Musk-ox 


79 


insula,  Greenland,  a  series  of  specimens  which,  on 
being  sent  to  the  Museum  of  Natural  History  of 
New  York,  were  decided  by  Professor  J.  A.  Allen 
as  having  sufficient  distinction  to  warrant  classi- 
fication. Meantime  Rowland  Ward,  the  Lon- 


Forefoot  of  East  Greenland  Musk-ox. 


actual  size 


don  taxidermist,  had  secured,  by  purchase,  a  couple 
of  similar  specimens  from  East  Greenland  which 
Professor  Lydekker  recognized  as  a  new  variety, 
and  in  honor  of  Mr.  Ward  named  O.  moschatus 
wardi.  Mr.  Ward's  specimens  were  secured  from 
whalers  who,  in  turn,  got  them  from  trading  with 
natives  in  East  Greenland.  Lieutenant  Peary's 
specimens,  however,  were  collected  on  the  ground 


8o  Tbe  Musk-ox 

by  himself,  and  he  is  certainly  entitled  to  the 
honor  of  the  new  variety  bearing  his  name.  So 
Professor  Allen  rightly  thinks,  and  though  he 
has  adopted  Professor  Lydekker's  name,  he  re- 
serves O.  pearyi  (Allen)  as  a  provisionary  one 
which  may  be  accepted  for  the  Grinnell  Land 
animal  in  case  it  should  prove  to  be  separable. 
This,  however,  does  not  appear  likely.  The 
most  distinguishing  difference  between  the  O. 
wardi,  as  called,  or  O.  pearyi,  as  it  should  be 
known,  and  the  O.  moschatus,  is  in  the  head. 
The  entire  front  of  the  new  variety  head  is  more 
or  less  gray  instead  of  wholly  brown,  as  is  the 
O.  moschatus ;  while  the  horn  base  of  the  new 
variety  is  much  narrower  and  slightly  different  in 
shape  from  those  of  the  old  variety.  The  skulls 
of  the  two  varieties  are  practically  alike ;  at  least 
there  is  very  slight  difference.  The  general  color 
of  the  fur  of  the  new  variety  is  a  little  lighter,  and 
the  animal  itself  is  not  so  large  or  heavily  built. 

How  either  variety  of  musk-ox  ever  got  to 
Greenland  has  been  a  subject  of  much  discussion 
among  scientists  who  seem  now,  however,  to  have 
finally  decided  that  they  reached  the  island  from 
the  west  by  crossing  Smith  Sound  from  Elles- 
mere  Land,  and  by  crossing  Robeson's  Channel 


SKULL  OF  THE  EAST  GREENLAND  MUSK-OX  —  (Ovibos  Wardi) 


SKULL   OF   THE   BARREN    GROUND    MUSK-OX—  (Ovibos 
moschatus) 


SIDE  VIEW  —  (Ovibos  Wardi) 


SIDE  VIEW—  (Ovibos  moschatus) 


The  Musk-ox  85 

from  Grinnell  Land,  thence  along  the  low  Green- 
land Coast  to  East  Greenland.  Outside  of  the 
Arctic  islands  ana  of  Arctic  America  so  far  south 
as  the  62d  parallel,  the  musk-ox  is  unknown. 
There  was  a  time,  however,  when  its  range  included 
all  that  part  of  the  northern  hemisphere  between, 
roughly  speaking,  the  Arctic  Circle  and  the  North 
Pole.  It  seems  even  possible  that  in  the  dim 
ages,  the  musk-ox  had  a  wider  and  much  more 
southern  distribution,  for  the  skull  from  which 
the  extinct  type  bombifrons  was  named,  was  found 
in  Kentucky,  another  having  been  found  also  in 
Arkansas.  Fossil  remains  of  musk-oxen  have 
been  unearthed  in  Siberia,  Alaska,  Grinnell  Land, 
and  Northern  Europe.  There  is  no  authentic 
data  of  their  having  been  found  in  Alaska 
within  the  memory  of  present  living  man,  and 
they  do  not  range  within  two  hundred  miles  of 
the  Mackenzie  River,  which  is  laid  down  as  their 
western  limit.  Much  has  been  said  of  their  being 
of  recent  existence  in  Alaska.  I  made  careful 
search  for  authentic  data  concerning  their  western 
range,  but  secured  no  information  at  all  trust- 
worthy of  even  a  tradition  of  them  in  Alaska; 
while  nothing  more  certain  than  hearsay  handed 
from  father  to  son  did  I  find  as  to  their  being 


86  The  Musk-ox 

seen  near  the  Mackenzie  River.  From  time  to 
time  statements  find  their  way  into  print  of  a 
musk-ox  found  in  Alaska.  Such  misleading 
information  is  based  on  the  tales  of  traders  who 
may  perhaps  have  got  a  musk-ox  skin  at  some 
Alaskan  post.  Mr.  Andrew  J.  Stone,  who  has 
spent  several  years  in  the  Far  North  collecting 
for  the  Museum  of  Natural  History,  and  who 
knows  Alaska  and  all  that  great  stretch  of  coun- 
try west  of  the  Mackenzie  River  thoroughly,  has 
covered  this  question  in  a  statement  published 
in  an  American  Museum  bulletin  in  1901.  It 
touches  finally  upon  a  question  much  agitated, 
and  it  seems  to  me  sufficiently  important  to 
make  permanent  record  here.  Therefore  I 
reproduce  it. 

AS   TO   THE   WESTERN    RANGE    OF   MUSK-OXEN. 

Febr'y  28,  1901. 
MY  DEAR  DR.  ALLEN  :  — 

In  response  to  your  inquiry  in  reference  to  the  existence  of 
the  musk-ox  (Ovibos  moschatus)  west  of  the  Mackenzie  River, 
or  in  Alaska,  I  will  state  there  are  none  of  these  animals  in  any 
part  of  Arctic  America  west  of  the  Mackenzie.  Previous  to 
my  departure  for  the  North  in  the  spring  of  1897,  I  had  for 
several  years  carefully  searched  for  information  upon  this  sub- 
ject, and  from  what  I  had  gathered  I  had  a  faint  hope  of 
rinding  some  of  these  animals  in  the  mountains  west  of  the 


The  Musk-ox  89 

Mackenzie,  just  south  of  the  Arctic  Coast.  These  mountains 
are  known,  respectively,  as  the  Richardson,  Buckland,  British, 
Romanzof,  and  Franklin  Mountains,  but  in  reality  they  are  the 
western  extension  of  the  main  Rocky  Mountain  range  that 
bends  west  from  the  Mackenzie  along  the  Arctic  Coast.  On 
reaching  the  neighborhood  of  these  mountains,  however,  in  the 
winter  of  1898-99,  all  hope  of  finding  living  specimens  of 
musk-ox  in  them  was  destroyed. 

The  Romanzof  Mountains,  from  which  specimens  of  musk- 
ox  are  reported  to  have  recently  been  brought,  by  way  of 
Camden  Bay,  are  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles 
west  of  Herschel  Island.  The  Pacific  Steam  Whaling  Com- 
pany, with  offices  at  No.  30  California  Street,  San  Francisco, 
have  maintained  a  whaling  station  at  Herschel  Island  for  a 
number  of  years;  there  has  also  been  established  there  for 
a  number  of  years  a  Church  of  England  Mission,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Rev.  I.  O.  Stringer.  I  visited  Herschel  Island 
in  November  and  December,  1898,  for  the  purpose  of  collect- 
ing all  possible  information  relative  to  the  animal  life  of  those 
regions.  On  my  way  to  and  from  Herschel  Island  I  sledded 
the  very  base  of  the  Davis  Gilbert,  Richardson,  and  Buckland 
Mountains.  I  stopped  over  night  on  both  journeys  with  a  lot 
of  Eskimo,  at  that  time  hunting  the  Davis  Gilbert  Mountains 
and  living  in  what  is  known  as  Oakpik  (willow  camp),  in  the 
extreme  western  part  of  the  Mackenzie  delta,  very  near  the 
foot  of  the  mountains.  Specimens  of  Ovis  dalli  (white  sheep) 
and  of  caribou  and  fur-bearing  animals  were  plentiful  in  their 
camp,  but  there  was  no  sign  of  musk-ox. 

At  Shingle  Point,  on  the  Arctic  Coast,  near  the  Richardson 
Mountains,  I  spent  several  days  with  a  man  who  was  trading 
with  the  Eskimo  who  weie  hunting  the  Richardson  Mountains. 
There  were  several  Eskimo  in  his  camp  at  the  time,  and  he 
had  in  his  possession  skins  of  the  white  sheep,  caribou,  and  a 
variety  of  fur-bearing  animals,  but  there  was  no  sign  of  musk- 


90  Tbe  Musk-ox 

ox,  and  I  learned  on  careful  inquiry  through  my  interpreter 
that  the  natives  seemed  to  know  nothing  of  them,  with  the 
exception  of  one  young  man  who  had  been  to  the  eastward 
on  one  of  the  whaling  ships.  The  Tooyogmioots,  a  tribe  of 
Eskimo  who  once  lived  along  this  coast  and  hunted  these  dif- 
ferent mountains,  are  now  almost  extinct.  I  found  between 
the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  and  Herschel  Island  a  very  few 
individuals  living  in  snow  houses,  but  I  did  not  find  in  or 
around  their  places  of  residence  any  sign  of  musk-ox  skins, 
bones,  or  heads. 

I  remained  at  Herschel  Island  from  Nov.  24  to  Dec.  14, 
visiting  the  Rev.  I.  O.  Stringer  and  Capt.  Haggerty  of  the 
steam-whaler,  Mary  Dehume.  Both  men  were  able  to  con- 
verse readily  with  the  Eskimo  in  the  Eskimo  tongue,  and  they 
gave  me  every  possible  assistance  in  making  my  inquiries. 
This  whole  coast  far  to  the  westward  of  Herschel  Island  is  now 
occupied  by  the  Noonitagmiott  tribe  of  Eskimo.  There  were 
a  large  number  of  these  people  at  the  island,  and  among  them 
were  parties  who  hunted  all  the  mountains  of  the  mainland 
mentioned,  living  in  the  mountains  a  great  part  of  the  time. 
Many  skins  of  caribou,  sheep,  and  fur-bearing  animals  were 
seen  in  the  possession  of  these  people,  but  none  of  them  pos- 
sessed any  part  of  the  musk-ox,  and  the  only  members  of  the 
tribe  who  knew  anything  of  the  musk-ox  were  those  who  had 
been  carried  to  the  east  by  whaling  ships.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Stringer  takes  great  interest  in  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country  and  travels  extensively  among  these  people,  but  he 
had  no  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  any  musk-oxen  west 
of  the  Mackenzie.  Capt.  Haggerty  had  wintered  along  this 
coast  for  a  number  of  years,  trading  extensively  with  the 
natives,  but  he  had  never  secured  or  heard  of  a  musk-ox  skin 
west  of  the  Mackenzie. 

All  the  whaling  ships,  which  have  wintered  here  for  years, 
sometimes  as  many  as  fifteen  at  the  same  time,  keep  Eskimo 


The  Musk-ox  91 

hunters  in  the  field  continually  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
fresh  meat  for  the  crews,  sending  white  sailors  in  charge  of 
dog  sleds  to  visit  the  Eskimo  camps  to  bring  in  the  meat.  It 
is  not  uncommon  for  these  sleds  to  go  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  two  hundred  miles  for  meat,  and  all  the  mountains  to  the 
north  and  west  of  Herschel  Island  have  been  visited  many 
times  by  these  hunters  and  sledding  parties,  without  obtaining 
any  trace  of  musk-ox.  Collinson,  who  wintered  near  Camden 
Bay  in  1853-54,  does  not  mention  the  musk-ox.  The  U.  S. 
Government  Survey  party,  which  wintered  on  the  Porcupine 
several  years  ago  and  visited  Rampart  House,  a  Hudson  Bay 
trading  post  at  the  Ramparts  on  the  Porcupine  River,  and  who 
went  from  there  with  Mr.  John  Firth,  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany's trader,  north  through  these  mountains  to  the  Arctic 
Coast  and  returned,  did  not  find  musk-ox.  Several  white 
men  have  travelled  back  and  forth  through  these  mountains 
from  Fort  Yukon,  on  the  Yukon  River,  to  Herschel  Island,  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  sled  dogs  of  the  Eskimo  on  the  Arctic 
Coast,  to  be  used  on  the  Yukon,  without  securing  or  learn- 
ing anything  of  the  musk-ox.  Mr.  Hodgson  and  Mr.  Firth, 
both  in  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  have  been 
stationed  at  Fort  Yukon  at  the  mouth  of  the  Porcupine,  at 
Rampart  House  on  the  Porcupine,  and  at  Lapierres  House  on 
Bell  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Porcupine,  during  a  period  of 
over  thirty  years,  trading  with  the  Loucheaux  Indians,  several 
tribes  of  which  hunt  north  of  these  places  into  the  mountains 
mentioned,  without  ever  obtaining  any  knowledge  of  the  exist- 
ence of  musk-ox ;  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  have  never 
secured  at  any  of  these  posts  any  skins  of  the  musk-ox. 

Previous  to  the  advent  of  the  whalers  on  this  coast,  the 
coast  Eskimo  also  traded  at  these  Hudson  Bay  posts.  The 
country  between  the  Porcupine  River  and  the  Arctic  Coast,  in 
which  district  the  mountains  above  mentioned  are  situated,  is 
entirely  accessible  from  the  north  or  south,  and  every  part  of  it 


92  The  Musk-ox 

has  been  hunted  for  years  by  the  Eskimo  and  Indians.  Barter 
Island,  near  Camden  Bay,  has  been  the  rendezvous  of  the 
north  coast  Eskimo  for  years,  where  they  meet  every  summer 
to  barter  and  trade  with  each  other.  At  one  of  these  mid- 
summer festivals  there  may  be  seen  spotted  reindeer  skins 
from  Siberia,  walrus  ivory  and  walrus  skins  from  Bering  Sea, 
or  the  stone  lamps  from  the  land  of  the  Cogmoliks  (the  far- 
away people)  of  the  East,  and  it  is  not  impossible,  though 
hardly  probable,  that  musk-ox  skins  might  be  found  there. 

I  also  travelled  through  the  country  of  the  Kookpugmioots 
and  Abdugmioots  of  the  Arctic  Coast,  east  of  the  Mackenzie. 
The  first  people  encountered  along  the  coast  east  of  the  Mac- 
kenzie are  the  Kookpugmioots  —  they  hunt  the  coast  country 
as  far  east  as  Liverpool  Bay,  but  many  of  their  best  hunters 
never  saw  a  musk-ox.  The  Abdugmioots  originally  hunted 
the  Anderson  River  country,  but  now  live  around  Liverpool 
Bay,  and  most  of  them  have  hunted  musk-ox.  The  Kogmo- 
liks,  who  once  lived  around  Liverpool  and  Franklin  Bays,  but 
who  are  now  practically  merged  with  the  Kookpugmioots, 
along  the  shores  of  Allen  Channel,  have  been  musk-ox  killers. 

A  good  many  of  the  Port  Clarence  natives,  living  near 
Bering  Straits,  have  killed  musk-oxen,  but  only  around  the 
head  of  Franklin  Bay  and  on  Parry  Peninsula,  they  having 
been  taken  there  by  whalers.  Nearly  all  the  whaling  ships 
pick  up  Port  Clarence  natives,  on  their  way  north  and  east  to 
the  whaling  grounds,  and  keep  them  with  them  until  their 
return,  perhaps  thirty  months  later.  Some  of  these  vessels 
have  wintered  at  Cape  Bathurst  and  in  Langton  Bay  at  the 
head  of  Franklin  Bay.  Four  of  these  vessels  wintered  in 
Langton  Bay  in  1897-98,  and  during  the  winter  their  Eskimo 
and  sailors  killed  about  eighty  head  of  musk-oxen,  most  of 
which  were  taken  on  the  Parry  Peninsula.  When  I  was  at 
Herschel  Island,  in  the  winter  of  1898,  I  saw  forty  of  these 
skins  in  one  of  the  warehouses  of  the  Pacific  Steam  Whaling 


The  Musk-ox  93 

Company.     They  were  the  property  of  Capt.  H.  H.  Bodfish  of 
the  steam  whaler  Beluga. 

The  range  of  the  musk-ox  at  the  present  time  does  not 
extend  westward  to  within  three  hundred  miles  of  the  Mac- 
kenzie delta.  Any  information  concerning  the  musk-ox  gath- 
ered around  Point  Barrow  and  thence  south  to  Bering  Straits 
and  Port  Clarence,  has  been  obtained  from  natives  who  have 
accompanied  whaling  ships  to  the  East ;  and  all  the  musk-ox 
skins  that  find  a  market  in  San  Francisco  have  been  purchased, 
directly  or  indirectly,  from  the  whaling  ships. 

Very  truly  yours, 

ANDREW  J.  STONE. 

Wherever  explorers  have  gone  into  Eastern 
Arctic  North  America  they  have  found  the  musk- 
ox.  Lieutenant  Peary,  who  has  spent  more  time 
in  the  Arctic  than  any  other  living  man,  writes 
that  he  has  killed  musk-oxen  at  Cape  Bryant  on 
the  Northwest  Coast,  and  at  the  extreme  northern 
end  of  Greenland  Archipelago,  north  latitude 
83°  39',  and  it  appears  from  lack  of  records  to  the 
contrary  that  they  are  found  on  all  the  Arctic 
islands  except,  curiously  enough,  the  Islands  of 
Spitzbergen  and  Franz  Josef  Land,  where  they  are 
unknown.  That  the  musk-ox  does  not  seem  to 
migrate  on  the  ice  from  island  to  island  as  the 
reindeer  do,  is  another  curious  fact. 

Frederick  Schwatka,  who  hunted  along  the 
Arctic  Coast,  and  one  or  two  of  the  scientists, 


94  Tbe  Musk-ox 

place  the  southerly  range  of  the  musk-oxen  at  the 
6oth  parallel,  but  this  is  fully  two,  if  not  four, 
degrees  too  far  south  to  correctly  represent  their 
present  range.  Hearne  saw  tracks  in  latitude  59°, 
and  musk-oxen  in  latitude  61°,  in  1771,  but  I  have 
never  heard  of  musk-oxen  being  killed  within 
recent  years  so  far  south  as  the  62d  parallel.  It 
is  conceivable,  however,  that  they  might  stray  so 
far  south,  though  in  my  opinion  highly  improbable. 
Pike  records  a  musk-ox  killed  at  Aylmer  Lake,  in 
the  Barren  Grounds.  This  is  the  most  southerly 
killing  that  I  have  heard  of,  and  the  most  south- 
erly one  of  which  Mr.  Pike  makes  record.  Aylmer 
Lake  is  just  above  the  64th  parallel.  I  saw  no 
musk-oxen  below  the  65th  degree,  and  it  was  my 
experience,  as  well  as  Pike's,  that  musk-oxen  are 
not  what  you  may,  comparatively  speaking,  call 
plentiful  until  the  66th  parallel. 

Some  writers  persist  in  calling  the  musk-ox 
migratory,  but  there  is  no  reason  for  doing  so. 
When  fully  grown,  it  is  about  the  size  of  the 
English  black  cattle,  its  height  being  4  feet  2 
to  4  inches  at  the  shoulder,  and  its  girth  very 
large  for  its  height.  Indians  estimate  the  flesh  of 
a  mature  cow  musk-ox  equal  to  that  of  about  three 
Barren  Grounds  caribou,  which  would  be  from 


The  Musk-ox  97 

three  hundred  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds; 
the  bull  may  go  as  much  as  two  hundred  pounds 
heavier.  They  travel  in  herds  varying  from  half 
a  dozen  to  thirty  or  forty.  Some  authors  have 
referred  to  "vast  herds,"  no  doubt  confusing 
musk-oxen  with  caribou.  Fifty  would  be  a  large 
herd,  and  I  suppose  from  ten  to  twenty  would 
fairly  represent  the  size  of  the  average  herd.  As 
a  rule,  such  a  sized  herd  would  have  one  or  two 
bulls.  I  found  herds  that  were  all  bulls,  others 
that  were  all  cows. 

The  robe  is  of  a  very  dark  brown,  which  seems 
black  against  the  snow,  and  the  hair  all  over 
the  body  is  coarse  and  long,  reaching  down 
below  the  belly  to  the  knees  (especially  long 
on  the  rump,  where  I  measured  some  that  was 
fifteen  to  twenty  inches),  and  under  the  throat 
it  hangs  down  as  a  thick  mane.  There  appears 
to  be  a  decided  tendency  to  a  hump,  which  is 
emphasized  by  the  shorter  stiffish  hair  that 
covers  shoulders  and  the  base  of  the  neck. 
And  there  is  a  saddle  mark  of  a  dirty  grayish 
white.  Underneath  this  hair  and  over  all  the 
body  grows  a  coat  of  mouse  gray  wool  of  fine 
texture,  which  protects  the  animal  in  winter  and 
is  shed  in  the  summer.  No  wool  grows  on  the 


legs,  which  are  massive,  and  although  short, 
appear  to  be  shorter  than  they  are  because  of  the 
long  hair  that  falls  over  them.  In  running,  they 
have  a  rolling,  choppy  kind  of  a  gait,  and  I 
noticed  when  they  fell  from  a  rifle  wound  they 
could  not  get  on  their  feet  again. 

The  growth  of  the  horn  is  very  interesting.  It 
begins  exactly  as  with  domestic  cattle  by  a  straight 
shoot  out  from  the  head.  For  the  first  year, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  the  difference  between  the 
sexes  by  the  horns.  In  the  second  year,  the  bull 
horn  is  a  little  whiter  than  that  of  the  cow ;  the 
forehead  of  a  two-year  musk-ox  I  killed  showed  a 
forehead  covered  with  short,  curlish  hair.  In 
this  year  the  cow's  horn  begins  to  show  a  down- 
ward turn,  and  is  fully  developed  at  its  third  year. 
The  bull's  horns,  on  the  contrary,  are  just  begin- 
ning to  spread  at  the  base  in  the  third  year.  They 
continue  spreading  toward  the  centre  of  the  fore- 
head until  they  meet  in  the  bull's  fifth  year,  but  in 
the  sixth  year  they  begin  to  separate,  leaving  a 
crevice  in  the  centre  which  widens  as  the  bull 
ages  until  it  is  from  an  inch  to  an  inch  and  a  half 
wide.  In  the  cow  these  crevices  also  open  by  age 
to  even  a  greater  extent  than  in  the  bull.  The 
horns  of  both  bull  and  cow  darken  as  they  reach 


The  Musk-ox  99 

their  full  development,  until  they  are  quite  dark 
from  six  to  eight  inches  toward  the  base ;  and 
as  the  animal  ages  the  extreme  darkness  of  horn 
disappears,  until  finally  in  the  old  animal  of  either 
sex  there  remains  only  a  black  tip  about  a  couple 
of  inches  on  the  very  point  of  the  horn.  As  the 
crevice  between  the  horns  in  both  sexes  widens, 
the  base  of  the  boss  on  each  side  thickens  to  at 
least  three  inches  in  the  bull  and  two  or  less  in  the 
cow.  On  the  boss  the  horn  is  corrugated,  but  at 
the  turn  it  becomes  smooth,  and  is  polished  like 
an  ox  horn  on  the  point. 

The  largest  horns  of  which  I  believe  there 
is  record  are  owned  by  a  taxidermist  who  pur- 
chased them ;  but  the  locality  from  which  they 
came  is  unknown.  Their  breadth,  measured  up 
and  down  at  the  crevice  of  the  boss,  or,  tech- 
nically speaking,  the  breadth  of  palm,  is  i3j 
inches ;  the  length  of  horns  on  outside  curve,  30^ 
inches.  The  next  largest  pair  is  in  the  British 
Museum  and  measures  1 3 J  inches  in  breadth  and 
26J  in  length.  The  third  is  I2f  by  26J,  presented 
to  the  British  Museum  by  J.  Rae,  an  old  time 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  factor,  and  got  on  the 
Barren  Grounds.  The  next  is  I2-J-  by  27^,  the 
property  of  the  Earl  of  Lonsdale,  who  picked  up 


ioo  Tbe  Musk-ox 

the  head  on  his  way  down  the  Mackenzie  River, 
several  years  ago.  Warburton  Pike  holds  the 
two  next  heads,  one  n  by  26f,  and  the  other 
ii  by  24!%  The  largest  head  I  killed  is  rather 
remarkable  in  respect  to  length  of  horn  and  thick- 
ness of  the  boss.  Indian  hunters  who  saw  it,  at 
all  events,  considered  it  most  unusual.  It  meas- 
ures ii J  by  27^;  width  of  crevice,  ij  inch;  thick- 
ness of  boss  at  crevice,  3f-  inches. 

The  flesh  of  the  musk-ox  is  exceedingly  tough, 
and  by  no  means  pleasing  to  the  taste,  especially 
in  the  rutting  season  (August  and  September), 
when  it  is  practically  uneatable.  There  is  a  cer- 
tain musky  odor,  but  it  is  not  so  pronounced  as 
generally  said  to  be.  In  fact  the  only  distinct 
musk-ox  odor  is  got  from  breaking  and  crushing 
the  dry  dung.  As  indicative  of  this  queer  crea- 
ture, I  may  add  that  musk-ox  dung  is  but  very 
little  larger  than  and  of  very  near  the  shape  and 
color  as  that  of  the  large  hare.  The  flesh  of  the 
cow  is  by  no  means  choice,  but  it  is  not  bad ; 
the  flesh  of  the  calf  I  found  to  be  rather  tasteless. 
The  unborn  calf  is  considered  quite  a  delicacy, 
of  which  my  Indians  did  not  deny  themselves 
merely  because  we  had  no  cooking  fire.  They  ate 
it  raw,  just  as  they  took  it  from  the  mother's 


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The  Musk-ox  103 

stomach.     Cows  never  give  birth  to  more  than 
one  calf  at  a  time,  born  in  June. 

On  only  two  occasions  have  musk-oxen  been 
brought  alive  into  captivity  in  North  America. 
One  of  these  was  an  eighteen  months'  old  female 
caught  east  of  Lady  Franklin  Bay,  about  thirty 
miles  inland,  by  a  party  sent  out  by  Captain  H. 
H.  Bodfish,  of  the  whaler  Beluga.  This  was 
exhibited  at  the  Sportsmen's  Show  in  New  York, 
where  it  was  purchased  by  the  Hon.  William  C. 
Whitney  and  presented  to  the  Zoological  Society 
of  New  York  in  March,  1902.  The  other  was  a 
younger  specimen  caught  in  Northeastern  Green- 
land by  Lieutenant  Peary  and  brought  out  and 
presented  to  the  Zoological  Society  by  him  in 
October  of  the  same  year.  Both  specimens,  how- 
ever, died  within  a  few  months.  Up  to  now  I 
believe  something  like  a  dozen  live  specimens 
have  been  taken  out  to  the  civilized  world.  All, 
however,  at  this  writing,  have  died,  except  two  or 
three.  One  is  in  a  zoological  garden  at  Copen- 
hagen, another  in  a  zoological  garden  at  Berlin, 
and  another  is  in  England,  owned  by  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  but  exhibited,  I  am  told,  in  London. 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

CITRUS  RESEARCH  CENTER  AND 

AL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 
CALIFORNIA 


104  The  Musk-ox 

MUSK-OX 

(OVIBOS    MOSCHATUS1) 

In  spite  of  its  name  this  Arctic  ruminant  has 
no  near  affinity  with  the  members  of  the  ox  tribe, 
the  cheek  teeth  being  more  like  those  of  the 
sheep  and  goats,  the  muzzle,  except  for  a  small 
strip  between  the  nostrils,  hairy,  and  the  tail 
reduced  to  a  mere  stump  concealed  among  the 
long  hair  of  the  hind  quarters.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  resemblance  to  the  sheep  is  not  very 
close,  the  horns,  which  in  old  males  nearly  meet 
in  the  middle  line  of  the  forehead,  being  of  a 
totally  different  form  and  structure,  and  the  skull 
likewise  very  distinct.  In  the  males  the  horns 
are  much  flattened  and  expanded  at  the  bases, 
after  which  they  are  bent  suddenly  down  behind 
the  eyes,  to  curve  upward  at  the  tips.  In  the 
females  they  are  much  smaller,  less  expanded, 
and  not  approximated  at  their  bases.  In  both 
sexes  their  texture  is  coarse  and  fibrous,  and  their 
color  yellow.  The  long  coat  of  dark  brown 
hair,  depending  from  the  back  and  sides  like  a 
mantle,  affords  an  adequate  protection  against 

1  "  Records  of  Big  Game,"  Rowland  Ward,  third  edition. 


The  Musk-ox  105 

the  rigors  of  an  Arctic  winter;  and  the  broad, 
spreading  hoofs,  with  hair  on  their  under  surface, 
give  a  firm  foothold  on  snow  and  ice.  Two  races 
are  known — the  typical  Canadian  and  the  Green- 
land (O.  moschatus  wardi}.  The  latter  is  charac- 
terized by  the  presence  of  a  certain  amount  of 
white  on  the  forehead  and  the  smaller  expansion 
of  the  horns.  Height  at  shoulder  about  4  feet; 
weight  of  one  weighed  in  parts,  579  pounds 
(D.  T.  Hanbury). 

Distribution. — Arctic  America,  approximately 
north  and  east  of  a  line  drawn  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Mackenzie  River  to  Fort  Churchill  on  Hud- 
son Bay,  Greenland,  and  Grinnell  Land,  in  latitude 
32°  27';  approximate  southern  limit,  latitude 
40°  N. 


io6 


The  Musk-ox 

MEASUREMENTS  OF  HORNS 


LENGTH 

ON 

OUTSIDE 
CURVE 

BREADTH 

.OF 

PALM 

TIP  TO 
TIP 

LOCALITY 

OWNER 

-30* 

I3l 

3°J 

? 

W.  W.  Hart 

27| 

IO 

271 

Barren  grounds  of 

David  T.  Hanbury 

northern  Canada 

-*7l 

II! 

23 

Barren  grounds  of 

Caspar  Whitney 

northern  Canada 

27\ 

«a| 

27 

Barren  grounds  of 

Earl  of  Lonsdale 

northern  Canada 

~27i 

I0r 

271 

Barren  grounds  of 

Imperial  Museum, 

northern  Canada 

Vienna 

26$ 

ii 

27 

Barren  grounds  of 

Warburton  Pike 

northern  Canada 

26f 

i*f 

North  America 

British  Museum 

Q.  Rae) 

26J 

'31 

27| 

North  America 

British  Museum 

—25! 

10 

25 

North  America 

Dr.  Albert  von 

Stephani 

24f 

ii 

251 

Barren  grounds 

Warburton  Pike 

24i 

71 

19 

Barren  grounds 

J.  Talbot  Clifton 

24* 

i°i 

26 

Barren  grounds 

Hon.  Walter  Roths- 

child 

24 

9i 

23! 

North  America 

Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder, 

Bart. 

—24 

25 

? 

Major  W.  Anstruther 

Thomson 

23i 

6 

22| 

? 

A.  Barclay  Walker 

—  2I4 

9 

27 

? 

Dublin  Museum 

—  92  1  1 

4f 

20f 

? 

Imperial  Museum, 

Vienna 

?i8f 

4l 

.  . 

North  America 

British  Museum 

(A.  G.  Dallas) 

917 

4f 

91 

North  America 

Dr.  Albert  von 

Stephani 

MUSK-OX  (  Ovibos  moschatus  wardi) 


24! 

24i 

8* 

?i 

22j 
27 

Greenland 
Greenland 

Rowland  Ward 
Rowland  Ward 

THE   BISON 

BY  GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   HERD 


THE     BISON 

THE  buffalo  was  the  largest  and  economically 
the  most  important  of  North  American  mammals. 
It  was  also  one  of  the  most  numerous,  and  over 
a  great  area  of  the  continent  was  practically  the 
sole  support  of  its  aboriginal  inhabitants.  Within 
the  memory  of  men  who  as  yet  are  hardly  middle- 
aged,  it  roamed  the  country  between  the  Missouri 
River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  multitudes 
so  vast  that  it  was  commonly  stated  that  its  num- 
bers could  not  be  materially  reduced,  that  it  would 
exist  long  after  the  speakers  had  died.  Yet, 
within  thirty  years  it  has  so  absolutely  disap- 
peared that  the  number  of  living  wild  buffalo 
existing  to-day  is  probably  not  greater  than  the 
herd  of  European  bison  —  commonly,  but  erro- 
neously, called  aurochs  —  so  carefully  preserved 
in  the  forests  of  Lithuania  by  the  Russian  Czar. 

The  history  of  the  buffalo's  extermination  has 
been  many  times  written,  and  the  cause  of  its  dis- 
appearance is  not  far  to  seek.  It  was  killed  in 


n2  The  Bison 

great  numbers  by  the  Indians,  who  used  its  flesh 
for  food,  its  skin  for  clothing  and  for  their  shelters. 
Yet,  under  natural  conditions,  the  destruction 
which  they  wrought  was  never  very  extensive, 
and  was  more  than  compensated  for  by  the  annual 
increase.  Wolves,  bears,  and  other  wild  animals 
which  were  found  in  great  numbers  throughout 
the  buffalo's  range  in  old  days,  devoured  many  of 
them ;  but  these  were  largely  the  aged,  wounded, 
and  crippled,  or  those  which  were  drowned  in  the 
rivers,  or  mired  in  quicksands  and  mud-holes. 
All  this  destruction  by  natural  enemies  did  little 
more  than  keep  the  race  in  good  condition,  by 
cutting  off  the  sickly  and  the  feeble. 

When,  however,  the  white  man  appeared  on 
the  scene,  new  conditions  arose.  The  buffalo 
had  a  robe  which  was  as  useful  to  the  white  man 
as  to  the  Indian.  A  trade  speedily  sprang  up  in 
these  robes,  which  the  Indians  were  glad  to  kill 
and  tan  for  a  cupful  of  sugar,  or  a  few  charges  of 
powder  and  ball,  or  a  drink  or  two  of  alcohol. 
Now,  the  Indians  had  a  motive  for  killing  which 
heretofore  they  had  not  had.  They  killed  more 
buffalo  and  made  more  robes  than  before,  but 
still  they  made  no  impression  on  the  wandering 
millions  which  swayed  to  and  fro  under  the  influ- 


Tbe  Bison  113 

ence  of  the  seasons.  Steamboats  might  pass  down 
the  Missouri  River  loaded  to  the  guards  with 
bales  of  robes,  but  the  vast  herds  of  buffalo  showed 
no  diminution.  The  early  white  explorers,  or 
trappers,  or  traders,  did  not  themselves  take  the 
trouble  to  collect  buffalo  hides ;  there  were  more 
valuable  furs  in  the  country,  beaver  and  otter  and 
bears,  which  brought  better  prices,  and  —  more 
important  than  this  — did  not  require  to  be  tanned 
before  they  became  marketable.  For  a  buffalo 
skin  untanned  was  never  shipped;  it  was  only 
after  some  Indian  woman  had  expended  on  it 
days  of  patient  labor,  that  it  would  bring  at  the 
trading  post  the  pitiful  reward  which  the  white 
man  gave. 

At  last,  however,  —  and  that  was  less  than  forty 
years  ago,  —  a  railroad  began  to  push  its  way  out 
on  to  the  broad  plains  lying  between  the  Missouri 
River  and  the  Rockies,  and  to  thrust  itself  into 
the  very  region  where  the  buffalo  fed.  Over  the 
shining  rails  of  this  railroad  trains  began  to  pass, 
carrying  passengers ;  and  among  these  were  many 
white  men  eager  for  gain.  These  at  once  saw 
the  possibilities  of  the  buffalo.  At  first  they 
killed  them  for  meat,  but  soon  the  hides  began  to 
be  shipped  also.  And  other  men,  learning  that 


Tbe  Bison 

the  buffalo  hides  brought  $2.00  each,  and  that 
buffalo  were  to  be  had  for  the  trouble  of  shooting 
them,  crowded  into  the  range. 

Then  there  began  along  the  Platte  Valley  in 
Nebraska,  a  scene  of  slaughter  which  has  seldom 
been  equalled.  The  country  was  full  of  buffalo 
skinners.  Each  hunter  had  his  teams,  and  his 
gangs  of  skinners  which  followed  him  about  from 
place  to  place,  and  cared  for  the  hides  of  the 
beasts  which  he  killed.  In  some  places  the  only 
water  accessible  was  the  Platte  River,  and  here 
the  buffalo  came  to  drink.  Here,  too,  the  hunters, 
concealed  in  ravines  or  in  rifle-pits  that  they  had 
dug,  shot  down  the  beasts  one  by  one,  as  they 
came  to  water,  and,  indeed,  formed  so  complete  a 
cordon  along  the  river's  banks,  that  the  buffalo 
could  not  get  through  and  turned  back  into  the 
hills.  When  at  night  the  thirsty  herds  tried  to 
approach  the  river  under  cover  of  darkness,  they 
found  that  the  hunters  had  built  along  the  bottom 
great  fires,  which  they  kept  up  all  night,  and 
which  the  scared  buffalo  did  not  dare  to  pass. 

It  took  but  a  little  time  to  split  the  herd  which 
for  centuries  had  passed  across  the  valley  north 
and  south  with  the  seasons.  It  was  about  1870 
when  this  work  began,  and  in  1874  the  buffalo 


The  Bison  115 

were  last  seen  in  the  valley  of  the  Platte.  The 
herd  had  been  split. 

As  other  railroads  to  the  southward  pushed 
into  the  buffalo  country,  the  same  scenes  were 
enacted.  The  buffalo  country  swarmed  with 
hunters  who  came  in  constantly  increasing  num- 
bers, so  that  none  of  them  earned  any  money 
by  their  butcher's  work.  The  price  of  hides  fell, 
but  the  buffalo  continued  to  be  slaughtered.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  hides  went  to  market,  but 
these  were  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  buffalo 
killed.  Colonel  Dodge  has  expressed  the  belief, 
that  of  the  buffalo  killed,  only  one-fourth  or  one- 
fifth  reached  a  market.  It  is  conceivable  that 
the  proportion  was  even  less.  A  very  large  num- 
ber of  the  hunters  knew  nothing  about  hunting, 
or  shooting,  or  skinning  a  buffalo,  or  curing  its 
hide.  The  number  of  maimed  and  crippled  anfc 
mals  that  went  off  to  die  was  very  large.  The 
number  of  hides  ruined  in  skinning  was  large, 
and  the  number  improperly  cured  was  still  larger. 

By  the  latter  part  of  1874,  buffalo  to  the  south- 
ward of  the  Platte  River  began  to  be  very  scarce, 
and  in  1876  they  were  almost  gone.  After  that 
none  were  found  in  the  southern  country  except 
a  few  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  Indian 


n6  The  Bison 

Territory  and  in  the  waterless  country  of  the 
pan-handle  of  Texas.  There,  protected  by  the 
drought,  and  so  few  in  number  as  to  present  little 
attraction  to  the  skin  hunter,  a  few  lingered  for 
some  years,  until  finally  captured  or  destroyed  by 
Buffalo  Jones  in  his  expeditions  after  calves  for 
domestication. 

In  the  northern  country  the  buffalo  lingered 
longer.  The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  built  as 
far  west  as  Bismarck  on  the  Missouri  River  in 
1873,  stopped  there  for  six  or  seven  years,  and  it 
was  not  until  it  had  been  continued  well  beyond 
the  Missouri  that  it  again  entered  the  buffalo 
range  and  brought  with  it,  as  was  inevitable,  the 
buffalo  skinner.  When  he  came,  he  did  the  work 
he  had  done  in  the  South,  and  did  it  as  effec- 
tively. But  as  the  number  of  buffalo  left  in  the 
northern  herd  was  small,  it  took  only  two  or 
three  years  to  destroy  them. 

After  1883,  except  for  a  band  of  about  five 
thousand  which  had  been  overlooked  on  one  of 
the  Sioux  reservations,  there  were  no  buffalo  left 
in  the  northern  country  except  a  few  scatter- 
ing individuals,  which,  hidden  in  out-of-the-way 
places,  had  been  overlooked  by  the  hunters  and 
Indians,  and  so  for  a  year  or  two  were  preserved 


The  Bison  117 

from  slaughter.  In  the  arid  region  about  the 
heads  of  the  Dry  Fork  and  Porcupine  Creek  in 
Montana,  one  of  these  little  groups  was  left, 
which  yielded  to  expeditions  sent  out  by  the 
National  Museum  and  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History,  a  series  of  specimens,  proba- 
bly the  last  of  this  species  ever  to  be  collected  for 
science.  They  were  brought  together  just  in 
time,  for  since  then  there  have  been  no  buffalo. 
A  small  herd  of  the  so-called  wood  bison  still 
inhabits  the  vast  wilderness  between  Athabasca 
Lake  and  Lesser  Slave  Lake,  but  their  numbers 
are  few.  In  the  year  1900  there  were  two  little 
bunches  of  wild  buffalo  in  the  United  States,  per- 
haps neither  of  them  numbering  more  than  fifteen 
or  twenty  head.  In  the  summer  of  1901  one  of 
these  bunches,  which  had  long  ranged  in  Lost 
Park,  Colorado,  was  wiped  out  by  poachers,  while 
for  some  years  nothing  has  been  heard  of  the 
other  little  band  which  ranged  in  Montana,  and 
which,  in  1895,  numbered  forty  or  fifty  head,  no 
less  than  thirty-two  of  which  were  killed  a  year 
or  two  later  by  Red  River  half-breeds  who  made 
a  special  trip  to  their  range.  At  present  the  only 
important  band  of  buffalo  in  the  United  States  is 
that  ranging  within  the  confines  of  the  National 


n8  The  Bison 

Park,  and  it  is  altogether  probable  that  this  does 
not  number  more  than  twenty-five  or  thirty. 

No  doubt  the  extraordinary  abundance  of  the 
buffalo  had  something  to  do  with  the  wasteful- 
ness of  the  slaughter  which  followed  the  railroad 
building  into  the  buffalo  range.  Many  people  no 
doubt  really  believed  that  in  their  time  the  buffalo 
could  not  be  exterminated.  They  seemed  to  rea- 
son that  as  there  always  had  been  "  millions  of 
buffalo  "  there  always  would  be.  Men  killed  buf- 
falo for  any  foolish,  childish  reason  that  might 
come  into  their  heads,  —  to  try  their  guns,  to  see 
whether  they  could  hit  them,  for  fun  ! 

How  wantonly  even  some  of  the  first  traders 
destroyed  them  is  often  shown  by  the  few  writ- 
ings that  have  come  down  to  us  from  those  early 
days.  Henry,  in  his  Journal  of  August,  1800, 
tells  of  the  way  in  which  he  and  some  of  his  men 
passed  the  time  while  waiting  for  others  of  his 
people  to  come  up.  He  says,  "  We  amused  our- 
selves by  lying  in  wait,  close  under  the  bank,  for 
the  buffalo  which  came  to  drink.  When  the  poor 
brutes  came  to  within  about  ten  yards  of  us,  on  a 
sudden  we  would  fire  a  volley  of  twenty-five  guns 
at  them,  killing  and  wounding  many.  We  only 
took  the  tongues.  The  Indians  suggested  that 


The  Bison  119 

we  should  all  fire  together  at  one  lone  bull  which 
appeared,  to  have  the  satisfaction,  as  they  said,  of 
killing  him  stone  dead.  The  beast  advanced  till 
he  was  within  six  or  eight  paces,  when  the  yell 
was  given,  and  all  hands  let  fly ;  but  instead  of 
falling  he  galloped  off,  and  it  was  only  after  sev- 
eral more  discharges  that  he  was  brought  to  the 
ground.  The  Indians  enjoyed  this  sport  highly 
—  it  is  true,  the  ammunition  cost  them  nothing." 

There  has  been  much  misunderstanding  as  to 
the  former  distribution  of  the  buffalo  over  the 
North  American  continent,  and  the  extent  of 
territory  through  which  it  was  found.  Many 
respected  authorities  have  declared  that  it  oc- 
curred in  Eastern  Canada,  and  generally  along 
the  Atlantic  slope ;  in  portions  of  New  England, 
the  Middle  states,  and  south  even  into  Florida. 
It  was  said  in  general  terms  that  the  buffalo 
occurred  over  the  entire  continent  of  North 
America,  from  Florida  to  the  soth  degree  of 
north  latitude. 

These  loose  statements  were  corrected  by  Dr. 
J.  A.  Allen,  in  his  most  important  monograph  on 
the  American  bisons,  and  it  is  now  well  under- 
stood that  the  range  of  the  buffalo  included  only 
about  one-third  of  the  continent ;  that,  while  it  was 


120  The  Bison 

found  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  this  was  only  in  the 
southeastern  portion  of  its  range;  while  in  Can- 
ada, New  England,  and  Florida,  it  was  probably 
unknown. 

The  error  into  which  early  writers  were  led  on 
this  subject  undoubtedly  arose  from  the  terms 
used  by  the  earlier  explorers,  who  spoke  constantly 
of  vaches,  or  vaches  sauvages,  and  less  frequently 
of  buffu  or  buffle.  But  the  term  wild  cows,  used 
by  the  early  French  Jesuits  and  English  explorers, 
referred  to  the  elk  (Cervus  canadensis),  while  the 
words  buffu  or  buffle  were  used  to  designate  moose 
(Alces).  In  some  of  the  narratives  of  the  journeys 
of  the  Jesuit  travellers,  there  appear  on  almost 
every  page  references  to  the  herds  of  vaches 
sauvages,  and  many  of  these  writers,  at  one  time 
or  another,  describe  these  wild  cows  in  such 
unmistakable  language  as  to  show  beyond  ques- 
tion that  they  were  the  elk  or  wapiti. 

Dr.  Allen  assigns  the  Alleghany  Mountains  as 
the  general  eastern  boundary  of  the  range  of  the 
buffalo,  although  explaining  that  it  frequently 
passed  beyond  that  range,  and  showing  conclu- 
sively that  it  occurred  in  the  western  portions 
of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  North  and 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  Mr.  Hornaday 


The  Bison  111 

cites  some  evidence  to  show  that  it  occurred  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  quotes  Francis 
Moore,  in  his  "  Voyage  to  Georgia,"  to  prove  that 
there,  at  least,  buffalo  were  found  close  to  the  salt 
water. 

While  Dr.  Allen  gives  the  Tennessee  River  as 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  buffalo's  range,  west 
of  the  Alleghanies  and  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  Mr.  Hornaday  quotes  a  number  of  refer- 
ences to  show  that  it  occurred  in  some  numbers 
in  what  is  now  the  state  of  Mississippi,  and  gives 
a  tradition  of  the  Choctaws,  narrated  by  Clay- 
borne,  in  regard  to  the  disappearance  of  the 
species  from  that  section.  This  tradition  is  to 
the  effect  that  during  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  a  great  drought  occurred 
there  by  which  the  whole  country  was  dried  up. 
For  three  years  not  a  drop  of  rain  fell.  Large 
streams  went  dry,  and  the  forest  trees  all  died. 
Up  to  that  time,  it  is  said,  elk  and  buffalo  had 
been  numerous  there,  but  during  this  drought 
these  animals  crossed  the  Mississippi  River  and 
never  returned. 

In  the  eastern  portion  of  its  range,  the  Great 
Lakes  formed  a  barrier  on  the  north  which  the 
buffalo  did  not  pass ;  but  from  western  New  York 


122  The  Bison 

westward,  it  was  found  in  numbers  along  the 
southern  shores  of  these  lakes,  and  in  the  territory 
now  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wis- 
consin. Audubon  tells  us  that  in  the  first  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  buffalo  in 
Kentucky,  but  declares  that  about  1810,  or  soon 
after,  they  all  disappeared.  This  disappearance 
was  due  chiefly  to  their  actual  destruction  by 
white  men  and  by  Indians,  and  not,  as  is  com- 
monly stated,  to  the  retiring  of  the  great  herds 
before  the  advance  of  settlement  and  civilization. 
It  seems  that  the  last  buffalo  were  killed  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River  about  the  year  1820,  al- 
though it  may  be  that  in  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota they  lasted  somewhat  longer. 

West  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  turning  sharply 
northward  so  as  to  run  nearly  northwest,  the  east- 
ern border  of  the  buffalo's  range  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi was  a  line  running  very  near  the  western 
extremity  of  Lake  Superior,  up  through  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods,  west  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  thence 
northward  to  and  beyond  the  Great  Slave  Lake. 
There  this  border  line  turned  to  the  west,  and 
then  sharply  to  the  south,  and  meeting  the  Rocky 
Mountains  not  far  from  where  Peace  River  leaves 
them,  followed  the  range  south,  about  to  the  49th 


The  Bison  123 

parallel;  and  then  turning  south westwardly  and 
including  Idaho,  a  part  of  eastern  Oregon,  the 
northeast  corner  of  Nevada,  the  greater  portion  of 
Utah,  and  most  of  New  Mexico,  the  line  passed 
down  south  well  into  Mexico,  turning  eastwardly 
just  north  of  the  25th  parallel  of  latitude,  and  run- 
ning north  to  the  coast,  which  it  followed  around 
again  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 

As  it  has  been  known  in  our  day,  the  buffalo 
in  the  southern  portion  of  its  range  was  a  trans- 
Missouri  animal.  North  of  the  parallel  of  45 
degrees  it  was  found  in  equal  numbers  on  both 
sides  of  the  Missouri  River,  and  in  its  north- 
ern extension  reached,  and  possibly  even  to-day 
reaches,  north  to  Great  Slave  Lake ;  for,  as  already 
stated,  the  only  considerable  band  of  wild  buffalo 
to-day  is  the  wood  bison  of  the  north,  estimated 
to  number  four  hundred  or  five  hundred. 

Besides  the  boundaries  thus  set  forth,  it  is  prob- 
able that  in  early  days  there  was  a  considerable 
extension  of  the  buffalo's  range  northward  and 
westward,  into  portions  of  what  is  now  Alaska. 
Certain  it  is  that  in  that  territory  buffalo  remains 
have  been  found  in  great  numbers.  Some  of  these 
skulls  belong  to  species  long  extinct,  and  much 
larger  than  the  American  bison ;  but,  on  the  other 


124  The  Bison 

hand,  there  are  many  which  are  closely  similar  to 
that  species. 

The  range  of  the  buffalo  to  the  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  began  to  contract  not  very 
long  after  the  narrowing  of  its  range  on  the 
east.  The  earlier  explorers  in  the  West,  from 
Pike  downward,  report  buffalo  in  abundance. 
Yet,  as  already  stated,  the  westernmost  point  at 
which  their  remains  have  been  found  is  among 
the  foot-hills  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  Blue 
Mountains  of  Oregon.  In  1836,  it  is  reported, 
buffalo  were  abundant  in  Salt  Lake  Valley,  but 
there  nearly  all  were  soon  afterward  destroyed 
by  deep  snows,  which  covered  the  ground  for  a 
long  period  of  time.  This  corresponds  well  with 
statements  made  to  me  by  John  Robinson,  better 
known  in  early  days  as  Uncle  Jack  Robinson, 
one  of  the  old-time  trappers,  who  died  between 
1870  and  1880.  In  1870  he  told  me  that  the 
buffalo  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Green  River  and 
on  the  Laramie  Plains  had  all  perished  nearly 
forty  years  before,  during  a  winter  when  very 
deep  snows  fell,  followed  by  a  thaw  and  subse- 
quent cold,  which  crusted  the  snow  so  that  the 
buffalo  could  not  get  through  it,  and  starved  to 
death.  This  statement  was  confirmed  by  the 


The  Bison  125 

small  number  of  remains,  most  of  them  extremely 
old  and  weathered,  which  we  found  in  this  region 
at  that  time.  On  the  other  hand,  on  upper  tribu- 
taries of  the  Green  River  buffalo  were  found 
much  later,  and  it  is  possible  that  these  may  have 
been  animals  which  wintered  in  narrow  valleys 
of  the  mountains,  where,  during  this  deep  snow, 
food  was  accessible.  Fremont  states  that  in  the 
spring  of  1824  buffalo  were  abundant  as  far  west 
as  Fort  Hall,  while  Bonneville  reported  them  in 
extraordinary  abundance  in  the  Bear  River  Valley. 

The  mere  fact  that  buffalo  were  not  seen  by 
an  explorer  who  passed  through  any  given  terri- 
tory does  not  necessarily  show  that  they  did  not 
range  in  that  country.  I  have  travelled  for 
months  through  a  buffalo  range  without  seeing 
buffalo  or  any  evidence  of  their  very  recent 
presence,  yet  the  signs  found  showed  conclu- 
sively that  a  short  time  before  they  had  been 
there  in  vast  numbers.  It  would  have  been  per- 
fectly possible  for  two  honest  reports,  made  a  few 
months  or  years  apart  by  explorers  who  were  not 
prairie  men,  absolutely  to  contradict  each  other. 

Although  the  buffalo  disappeared  from  the 
country  west  of  the  Green  River,  and  even  from 
the  Laramie  Plains,  a  long  time  ago,  it  lin- 


i26  The  Bison 

gered  much  later  on  tributaries  of  the  Platte 
River  further  to  the  northward.  There  were 
buffalo  on  the  Sweetwater  and  its  tributaries 
between  1870  and  1880,  and  on  certain  other 
tributaries  of  the  North  Platte  River  between 
1880  and  1890.  About  this  same  time  there 
was  a  small  band  ranging  in  what  is  called  the 
Red  Desert  Country,  south  of  what  is  now  the 
National  Park.  But  the  last  of  these  disap- 
peared about  1890. 

The  color  of  the  buffalo  is  well  understood  to 
be  a  dark  liver  brown  over  most  of  the  body, 
changing  to  black  on  the  long  hair  of  the  fore 
legs,  muzzle,  and  beard.  The  long  hair  on  the 
hump  is  yellowish,  faded  from  sunburn,  and  often 
much  the  color  of  the  hair  of  a  "tow-headed 
child."  The  mountain  bison,  which  lives  largely 
in  the  timber,  and  is  scarcely  or  not  at  all  ex- 
posed to  the  sun,  is  much  darker,  sometimes 
almost  black,  throughout. 

Very  rarely  buffalo  of  unusual  color  were  seen. 
These  were  sometimes  roan,  sometimes  gray  or 
spotted  with  white,  or  even  pure  white  through- 
out. A  hide  taken  on  the  upper  Missouri  about 
1879  was  white  on  the  head,  legs,  and  belly,  and 
elsewhere  of  normal  color;  the  result  was  that 


The  Bison  127 

when  the  animal  was  skinned  and  the  hide 
tanned  there  was  a  fine  robe  of  the  ordinary 
color  bordered  with  a  wide  band  of  white.  If  I 
recollect  aright,  this  particular  hide  was  sold  on 
the  river  to  an  Englishman  for  $500. 

Buffalo  of  unusual  color,  being  so  seldom  seen, 
were  regarded  by  the  Indians  with  great  reverence. 
Among  the  plains  tribes,  the  buffalo,  on  which 
they  depended  for  food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  was 
sacred.  Its  skull  was  usually  placed  on  the  ground 
near  the  sweat  lodge,  prayers  were  made,  and  the 
pipe  was  offered  to  it,  in  a  petition  to  the  buffalo 
to  remain  with  them,  to  be  abundant,  and  even  to 
run  over  smooth  ground,  so  that  their  horses 
should  not  fall  during  the  chase.  If  buffalo 
in  general  were  sacred,  how  much  more  should 
the  white  one  receive  reverence.  The  Pawnees 
cherished  their  skins  as  sacred  objects,  and  kept 
them  in  their  medicine  bundles,  or  used  them  to 
wrap  about  these  bundles.  The  Blackfeet  re- 
garded white  buffalo  as  especially  dedicated  to  the 
Sun,  and  hung  up  the  white  robe  as  a  votive  offer- 
ing to  that  deity.  In  the  same  way,  the  Chey- 
ennes,  in  old  times,  sacrificed  the  hide  of  a 
white  buffalo  to  the  Sun,  although  later,  after 
their  habits  had  been  measurably  changed  by 


128  The  Bison 

contact  with  the  whites,  they  sometimes  sold 
such  robes. 

My  friend  George  Bent  —  son  of  Col.  William 
Bent,  one  of  the  historic  characters  of  the  early 
West  —  tells  me  that  during  a  long  course  of  trad- 
ing among  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes,  he  has 
seen  but  five  robes  that  could  fairly  be  called 
white.  One  of  these  was  silver-gray,  another, 
white,  a  third,  cream  color,  the  fourth,  dapple 
gray,  and  the  fifth,  yellowish  fawn  color.  He  tells 
me  that  in  ancient  times  the  white  buffalo  was 
regarded  by  the  Cheyennes  as  sacred,  and  that,  if 
one  of  them  killed  a  white  buffalo,  he  left  it  where 
it  fell,  taking  nothing  from  it,  and  not  even  putting 
a  knife  into  it.  The  Cheyennes  believe  that  any 
white  buffalo  belongs  far  to  the  north,  and  comes 
from  that  region  where,  according  to  their  tradi- 
tion, the  buffalo  originally  came  out  of  the  ground. 

A  great  many  years  ago  a  war  party  of  Chey- 
ennes went  up  north  against  the  Crows.  One  day 
they  came  to  a  hill,  and  when  they  looked  over  it 
they  saw  before  them  great  herds  of  buffalo  lying 
down,  and  among  them  a  cow,  perfectly  white. 
When  the  buffalo  stood  up  to  go  to  water,  the 
white  cow  also  stood  up,  and  went  with  them,  and 
it  was  observed  that  none  of  the  other  buffalo 


The  Bison  129 

went  very  close  to  her.  They  did  not  appear  to 
fear  her,  but  they  did  not  crowd  close  about  her ; 
they  gave  her  plenty  of  room,  as  if  they  respected 
her.  This  led  the  Cheyennes  to  think  that  the 
white  buffalo  was  a  chief  among  other  buffalo. 

The  women  of  the  Cheyennes  did  not  dress  a 
white  buffalo's  hide.  When  occasion  arose  for 
such  work,  it  was  commonly  done  by  some  captive 
woman ;  for  example,  a  Kiowa,  or  a  Pawnee,  — 
some  one  who  was  not  bound  by  Cheyenne  cus- 
toms and  Cheyenne  fears.  Rarely,  a  Cheyenne 
woman  went  through  a  certain  ceremony,  being 
prayed  over  by  a  medicine-man,  and  painted  in 
a  peculiar  fashion ;  this  ceremony  removed  the 
tabu,  and  she  might  then  dress  the  white  robe. 

The  habits  of  the  buffalo  were  in  most  respects 
those  of  domestic  cattle.  They  fed  in  loose  herds 
as  cattle  do,  the  members  of  a  family  —  that  is 
to  say,  the  old  cow  and  her  progeny,  sometimes 
up  to  three  or  four  years  old  —  keeping  together ; 
the  old  bulls,  lazier,  heavier,  and  less  active  than 
the  cows  and  the  younger  stock,  were  usually 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  herd,  and  if  it  was  slowly 
moving  in  any  direction,  were  likely  to  be  behind. 
Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  intelligence 
of  the  buffalo,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  bulls 


130  The  Bison 

stood  sentry  over  the  herd,  constantly  on  the 
watch  for  danger.  There  is  not  and  never  was 
any  foundation  for  these  stories,  which  were  mere 
creations  of  the  writer's  imagination.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  cows  were  much  more  alert  and 
watchful  than  the  bulls,  were  always  the  first  to 
detect  danger  and  to  move  away  from  it,  while  the 
bulls  were  dull  and  slow,  and  often  did  not  start 
to  run  until  the  herd  at  large  was  in  full  flight. 
Moreover,  the  cows  and  younger  animals  of  the 
herd  were  much  swifter  than  the  bulls,  and  so 
pressed  constantly  to  the  front,  while  the  bulls 
brought  up  the  rear.  The  disposition  of  the 
males  had  nothing  to  do  with  any  desire  to  pro- 
tect the  herd,  but  resulted  from  the  fact  that  they 
were  slower  than  the  others.  The  earlier  writers 
on  the  habits  of  these  and  other  animals,  credited 
them  with  human  motives  and  aspirations,  which 
of  course  they  do  not  possess.  A  somewhat  simi- 
lar fashion  of  writing  about  animals  is  current  at 
the  present  day,  but  is  false  and  unnatural,  and 
will  pass. 

The  hides  of  the  buffalo  are  in  their  best 
condition  in  the  early  part  of  the  winter,  and  it 
was  the  practice  of  the  Indians  to  collect  their 
robes  at  that  time  of  the  year,  —  namely,  between 


The  Bison  131 

November  and  January.  Soon  after  January, 
however,  the  hair  begins  to  grow  loose,  and  it 
is  shed  during  the  spring  and  early  summer, 
though  often  great  patches  cling  to  the  body 
until  late  summer  or  early  fall.  I  have  seen 
buffalo  in  the  month  of  July  still  clad  in  what 
looked  like  a  loose  robe,  the  old  hair  hanging  to- 
gether in  an  almost  complete  mat,  covering  the 
body.  Usually,  however,  by  rubbing  against  trees, 
rocks,  and  banks  of  dirt,  and  by  rolling  on  the 
prairie,  the  loose  hair  is  got  rid  of  by  early  summer. 
In  very  old  animals  the  moult  takes  place  later  and 
less  easily  than  in  those  in  good  condition,  and 
sometimes  old  and  lean  buffalo  do  not  seem  to 
shed  their  coats  completely. 

The  rutting  season  begins  in  July  and  lasts 
about  two  months.  During  this  time  frequent 
battles  take  place  among  the  bulls,  apparently 
fierce  on  account  of  the  size  and  activity  of  the 
combatants,  but  usually  without  important  re- 
sults. These  fights  are  much  like  similar  con- 
tests between  domestic  bulls;  they  paw  up  the 
ground,  kneel  down  and  thrust  their  horns  into 
the  earth,  mutter  and  bellow  and  grunt;  but 
although  they  charge  on  each  other  with  fury, 
and  come  together  with  a  tremendous  shock,  the 


The  Bison 

contest  usually  ends  in  nothing  more  important 
than  the  driving  off,  for  a  time,  of  the  weaker 
bull.  From  their  great  activity  at  this  season, 
the  bulls  rapidly  lose  flesh ;  but  after  the  rut  is 
over,  they  regain  it,  so  that  by  the  beginning 
of  the  cold  weather  they,  like  the  cows,  are  fat 
and  in  good  order. 

The  buffalo  cow  produces,  usually,  a  single 
calf,  which  may  be  born  during  the  months  of 
March,  April,  May,  or  June.  The  usual  time 
for  the  calves  to  be  born  is  in  April  and  May. 
Shortly  before  that  time  the  mother  separates 
herself  from  the  herd,  which,  however,  she  rejoins 
not  long  after  the  birth  of  the  calf.  Like  many 
other  ruminants,  the  mother  hides  her  calf  when 
it  is  small  and  weak,  but  does  not  wander  far  from 
it.  After  it  has  gained  some  strength  it  joins 
other  calves,  and  these  usually  keep  together  a 
little  apart  from  the  main  herd,  their  mothers 
coming  to  them  from  time  to  time  in  order  that 
they  may  nurse. 

When  first  born,  the  calves  are  reddish  yellow 
in  color,  do  not  possess  any  noticeable  hump,  and 
look  very  much  like  ordinary  domestic  calves, 
except  that  possibly  the  tail  is  slightly  shorter. 
Before  very  long,  however,  they  commence  to 


Tbe  Bison  133 

grow  darker  in  color,  and  I  have  seen  calves 
in  August  that  at  a  little  distance  seemed  almost 
as  dark  as  the  adult  buffalo. 

The  cow  is  devoted  to  her  calf,  and  is  ready 
to  fight  for  it  against  any  enemy  except  man. 
Usually,  in  the  buffalo  chase,  the  cow,  thoroughly 
frightened,  paid  no  attention  to  the  calf.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  cases  have  occurred,  where  men 
have  been  capturing  calves  to  rear  in  captivity, 
in  which  the  cow  refused  to  desert  her  offspring, 
but  turned  upon  the  captor  of  the  calf  and 
charged  him  with  the  utmost  boldness. 

Colonel  Dodge  instances  a  case  where  a  num- 
ber of  bulls  devoted  themselves  to  protecting  a 
calf  against  wolves.  He  says,  "  I  have  seen  evi- 
dence of  this  many  times,  but  the  most  remark- 
able instance  I  ever  heard  of  was  related  to  me 
by  an  army  surgeon  who  was  an  eye-witness. 
He  was  one  evening  returning  to  camp  after 
a  day's  hunt,  when  his  attention  was  attracted 
by  the  curious  actions  of  a  little  knot  of  six  or 
eight  buffalo.  Approaching  sufficiently  near  to 
see  clearly,  he  discovered  that  this  little  knot 
were  all  bulls,  standing  in  a  close  circle  with 
their  heads  downward,  while  in  a  concentric 
circle,  at  some  twelve  or  fifteen  paces  distant, 


1 34  The  Bison 

sat,  licking  their  chops  in  impatient  expectancy, 
at  least  a  dozen  large  gray  wolves  —  except  man, 
the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  the  buffalo.  The 
doctor  determined  to  watch  the  performance. 
After  a  few  moments  the  knot  broke  up,  still 
keeping  in  a  compact  mass,  and  started  on  a 
trot  for  the  main  herd  some  half  mile  off.  To 
his  very  great  astonishment,  the  doctor  now 
saw  that  the  central  and  controlling  figure  of 
this  mass  was  a  poor  little  calf,  so  newly  born 
as  scarcely  to  be  able  to  walk.  After  going  fifty 
or  one  hundred  yards,  the  calf  lay  down ;  the 
bulls  disposed  themselves  in  a  circle  as  before, 
and  the  wolves,  who  had  trotted  along  on  each 
flank  of  their  retreating  supper,  sat  down  and 
licked  their  chops  again.  This  was  repeated 
again  and  again,  and  although  the  doctor  did  not 
see  the  finale  (it  being  late  and  the  camp  distant), 
he  had  no  doubt  that  the  noble  fathers  did  their 
whole  duty  by  their  offspring,  and  carried  it  safely 
to  the  herd." 

We  may  imagine  that  this  was  an  unusual 
occurrence ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  true  that 
a  group  of  buffalo,  if  one  of  their  number  is 
attacked  or  threatened  by  wolves  while  they 
are  close  together,  will  all  rally  to  the  general 


The  Bison  135 

defence,  and  will  stand  by  each  other.  But  that 
the  bulls  make  it  their  business  to  defend  calves, 
or  systematically  preserve  anything  except  their 
own  skins,  I  do  not  believe. 

Few  people  who  have  seen  the  buffalo  only 
in  captivity,  few  even  of  those  who  have  hunted 
them  on  the  level  plains,  have  any  idea  of  the 
agility  of  this  clumsy,  heavy  creature,  or  of 
the  disposition  that  it  shows  to  reach  elevated 
points,  so  difficult  of  access  that  a  horse  might 
find  it  a  hard  matter  to  climb  them.  In  old 
times,  one  might  see  buffalo  ascending  steeps 
that  were  nearly  vertical ;  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
throwing  themselves  down  the  sides  of  mountains 
so  sharply  sloping  and  rough  that  a  horseman 
would  not  dare  follow  them.  Like  many  other 
animals,  wild  and  tame,  they  often  liked  to 
seek  elevated  points  from  which  a  wide  view 
might  be  had,  and  I  have  found  their  tracks 
and  other  signs  on  points  high  up  in  the 
mountains,  where  only  sheep  or  goats  would 
be  looked  for.  The  mountain  bison,  so-called  — 
and  by  many  hunters  regarded  as  a  species  quite 
distinct  from  the  buffalo  of  the  plains  —  was 
especially  given  to  frequenting  the  peaks  in  sum- 
mer; no  doubt  in  part  to  avoid  the  attacks  of 


136  The  Bison 

flies,  but  also  in  part  —  as  I  believe  —  from  sheer 
love  of  climbing. 

Like  most  other  herbivorous  animals,  the 
buffalo  was  subject  to  panics,  and  was  easily 
stampeded,  and  when  thoroughly  frightened,  a 
herd  ran  for  a  long  way  before  stopping.  When 
alarmed,  they  huddled  together  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible, running  in  a  dense  mass.  The  result  of 
this  was  that  only  the  animals  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  herd  could  see  where  they  were  going; 
those  in  the  centre  blindly  followed  their  leaders 
and  depended  on  them.  This  very  fact  was  a 
source  of  danger,  for  the  leaders,  crowded  upon 
by  those  that  followed,  even  if  they  saw  peril 
in  front  of  them,  could  not  stop,  and  often  could 
not  even  turn  aside,  but  were  constantly  forced 
on  to  a  danger  that  they  would  gladly  have 
avoided.  This  is  the  entirely  simple  explanation 
of  a  characteristic  often  wondered  at  by  writers 
about  this  species ;  that  is,  their  habit  of  running 
headlong  into  danger,  —  plunging  over  cut  banks 
into  the  pens  prepared  for  them  by  the  Indians, 
or  rushing  into  quicksands  or  places  where  they 
mired  down,  or  into  deep  water,  which  might 
have  well  been  avoided,  or  even  up  against  such 
obstacles  as  a  train  of  cars  or  a  steamboat  in  the 


The  Bison  137 

river.  The  simple  fact  is  that  the  animals  which 
saw  the  danger  were  unable  to  avoid  it  on  ac- 
count of  the  pressure  from  behind,  and  those  that 
were  pressing  the  leaders  on  were  ignorant  of  the 
danger  toward  which  they  were  rushing. 

I  have  already  adverted  to  the  popular  but 
erroneous  belief  that  the  buffalo  performed  exten- 
sive migrations  in  spring  and  fall.  This  is  not 
true.  There  were,  unquestionably,  certain  sea- 
sonal movements  east  and  west,  and  north  and 
south,  yet  these  movements  were  never  very  ex- 
tended, and  constituted  nothing  more  than  the 
very  general  shiftings  which-  are  made  by  many 
ruminants  between  a  summer  and  a  winter  range. 
Throughout  the  country  lying  between  the  Sas- 
katchewan and  the  Missouri  River,  the  buffalo,  in 
summer,  moved  up  close  to  the  mountains  and 
even  into  the  foot-hills ;  and  at  the  coming  of 
winter,  with  its  snows  and  its  bitter  winds,  they 
moved  to  the  eastward  again,  seeking  the  lower 
ground  and  such  shelter  as  the  ravines  and  buttes 
and  timbered  river  valleys  of  the  prairie  might 
afford. 

On  the  other  hand,  buffalo,  in  their  journeys  to 
water,  usually  travelled  to  the  nearest  streams,  and 
as  on  the  plains  the  streams  usually  run  from  west 


138  The  Bison 

to  east,  and  the  buffalo  travelled  in  single  file,  their 
trails  ran  at  right  angles  to  the  course  of  the 
rivers,  or  north  and  south.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  the  directions  of  these  trails,  deeply  worn, 
and  showing  the  passage  of  great  numbers  of  ani- 
mals, may  have  given  rise  to  the  popular  belief  in 
this  north  and  south  migration. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  true  that  the  buffalo 
herds  were  more  or  less  constantly  in  motion. 
As  they  were  very  numerous,  it  was  obviously 
essential  that  they  should  move  constantly,  to 
reach  fresh  grazing  grounds.  Often,  too,  they 
were  disturbed  by  hunters,  red  or  white,  who 
stampeded  the  herds,  which  then  rushed  off  in  a 
close  mass,  perhaps  not  to  stop  for  ten  or  a  dozen 
miles.  Besides  that,  frequently,  the  prairie  was 
burned,  so  that  they  were  deprived  of  food,  and 
long  journeys  must  be  made  to  reach  fresh  graz- 
ing grounds. 

Not  very  much  is  known,  and  very  much  less 
has  been  written  concerning  the  tendency  in  ani- 
mals, wild  and  domestic,  to  confine  themselves  to 
particular  localities ;  yet  all  people  who  live  much 
out  of  doors  understand,  even  though  they  may 
not  reason  much  about  it.  how  very  local  in  habit 
many  birds  and  animals  are.  The  ranchman,  of 


PROTECTED 


The  Bison  141 

course,  knows  that  the  horses  and  cattle  which 
feed  on  his  range  divide  themselves  up  into  little 
bunches,  each  of  which  selects  some  special  area 
where  they  spend  all  their  time,  rarely  moving  far 
from  it,  except  to  make  journeys  to  water;  or,  at 
some  change  of  the  seasons,  to  migrate  from  sum- 
mer to  winter  range  or  back  again.  In  domestic 
stock  this  attachment  to  locality  is  strongly 
marked,  and  it  is  a  common  thing  for  animals 
that  have  been  driven  to  a  range  hundreds  of 
miles  distant  from  that  on  which  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  feed,  to  travel  back  toward  their 
old  haunts  as  soon  as  they  are  turned  loose.  I 
have  known  cases  where  one-third  of  a  large 
bunch  of  horses,  driven  to  a  new  range  four  or 
five  hundred  miles  away,  were  a  year  later  gath- 
ered again  on  their  old  home  range.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter of  common  experience  for  horses  that  escape 
from  owners,  travelling  at  a  distance  from  the 
home  range,  to  take  the  back  trail  and  return 
to  it. 

Among  our  larger  game  animals  a  similar  con- 
dition of  things  prevails.  White-tail  deer  are 
greatly  attached  to  particular  localities,  and  when 
undisturbed,  confine  their  wanderings  within 
very  narrow  limits.  Even  if  thoroughly  fright- 


142  Tbe  Biscm 

ened,  and  driven  to  a  considerable  distance,  they 
soon  return.  If  an  old  white-tail  buck  is  run 
with  dogs,  he  may  make  a  long  chase,  and  cover 
a  wide  stretch  of  country,  but  to-morrow  he  will 
probably  be  found  in  his  old  home.  In  the  same 
way,  mule  deer,  mountain  sheep,  white  goats, 
and  antelope  show  their  attachment  for  localities, 
and  unless  persistently  disturbed,  wander  but 
little. 

The  same  thing  is  true  with  regard  to  non- 
migratory  birds.  Ruffed  grouse  attach  them- 
selves to  certain  pieces  of  woodland,  or  to 
particular  swamps,  and  the  birds  may  be  found 
there  all  through  the  season.  In  like  manner, 
quail  establish  themselves  on  certain  small 
pieces  of  ground,  and  after  their  haunts  have 
been  learned,  may  be  started  there  with  unfailing 
regularity. 

During  many  years'  experience  with  big  game, 
I  have  often  had  these  facts  thrust  on  my  atten- 
tion, and  have  seen  much  to  warrant  the  belief 
that,  like  other  wild  animals,  the  buffalo  feels 
attachment  for  a  particular  range  of  country, 
which  it  does  not  desert  except  for  good  reason, 
or  when  the  change  from  summer  to  winter,  or 
back  again,  leads  to  a  migration  that  may  fairly 


The  Bison  143 

be  called  seasonal.  The  buffalo's  attachment  to 
locality,  and  its  natural  inertia,  is  well  exempli- 
fied by  an  experience  of  Major  G.  W.  H.  Stouch, 
U.S.A.,  retired,  a  veteran  soldier  of  more  than 
thirty-five  years'  experience  on  the  plains,  of  which 
he  told  me  many  years  ago.  I  give  it  as  nearly 
as  possible  in  his  own  words :  — 

"  In  the  fall  of  1866  I  was  directed  to  proceed 
with  Company  C,  Third  Infantry,  to  reestablish 
old  Fort  Fletcher  on  the  north  fork  of  Big  Creek, 
sixteen  miles  below  the  present  Fort  Hays, 
Kansas.  When  on  October  i6th  we  marched 
down  to  the  site  chosen,  and  went  into  camp,  I 
noticed  half  a  mile  above  us  on  the  creek  bottom 
a  considerable  herd  of  buffalo  feeding ;  there 
were  perhaps  eight  or  nine  hundred  of  them. 
As  soon  as  I  saw  them,  it  occurred  to  me  that  I 
would  leave  them  undisturbed,  and  that  so  long 
as  they  remained  there  they  might  furnish  us 
a  supply  of  beef  at  very  little  cost  of  time  or 
trouble.  I  therefore  ordered  the  men  not  to 
hunt  up  the  creek,  or  disturb  these  buffalo  in 
any  way,  instructing  them  to  do  all  their  hunt- 
ing down  the  stream. 

"  In  order  to  put  my  idea  in  practice  at  once, 
I  detailed  one  of  the  soldiers  as  hunter  and 


144  Tbe  Bison 

butcher  of  the  company,  and  told  him  to  go  up 
the  creek  and  kill  a  buffalo,  but  not  to  show 
himself  either  before  or  after  firing  the  shot  — 
merely  to  kill  a  fat  cow  and  then  to  remain  un- 
der cover  until  I  joined  him  with  a  wagon.  He 
did  so.  At  the  report  of  the  rifle  the  buffalo 
fired  at  ran  a  few  steps,  and  then  lay  down,  while 
those  nearest  to  it  made  a  few  jumps,  looked 
around,  saw  no  one,  and  then  went  on  feeding. 
From  the  camp  we  were  watching  the  result  of 
the  shot,  and  as  soon  as  fired,  I  went  with  a 
wagon  to  bring  in  the  meat.  As  the  wagon  ap- 
proached the  carcass,  the  nearest  buffalo  moved 
out  of  the  way,  without  showing  any  special  fear, 
and  the  wagon  returned  to  camp  with  its  load. 
This  was  repeated  daily,  the  buffalo  never  being 
frightened  either  by  the  shot  or  the  wagon,  and 
seeming  to  become  more  tame  as  time  went  on, 
often  approaching  within  a  few  hundred  yards 
of  where  we  were  at  work  erecting  the  buildings. 
"  About  November  ist,  Troop  E,  Seventh 
Cavalry  (under  Lieutenant  Wheelan)  arrived  to 
reinforce  the  post;  and  about  November  igth 
Company  B,  Thirty-seventh  Infantry  (under  Lieu- 
tenant Phelps)  also  arrived.  I  explained  my 
plan  of  operation  to  these  officers,  and  requested 


The  Bison  145 

them  to  detail  hunters  from  their  companies,  and 
to  order  their  men  to  hunt  down  the  creek,  and 
not  to  disturb  what  I  had  come  to  regard  as  the 
post  beef  herd.  They  did  so,  and  the  herd  still 
remained  with  us. 

"  One  morning  in  February,  '67,  a  sergeant, 
whom  I  had  sent  the  day  before  with  a  small 
detail  to  make  a  scout,  rapped  at  my  door,  and 
reported  his  return.  Among  other  things,  he 
said :  '  Lieutenant,  I  met  our  buffalo  herd  travel- 
ling up  the  creek,  about  fifteen  miles  from  here. 
They  were  moving  slowly;  just  feeding  along.' 

"  I  determined  to  see  if  they  could  not  be 
brought  back,  and  taking  twenty-five  men  (ac- 
companied by  Lieutenant  Cooke,  Third  Infantry, 
Adjutant,  Assistant-Surgeon  Fisk,  and  Mr.  Hale, 
the  post  trader)  rode  up  the  creek,  and  entered  the 
valley  above  the  herd.  Then,  forming  a  skirmish 
line  across  the  bottom,  we  very  slowly  advanced 
toward  the  buffalo.  When  they  first  noticed  us, 
the  leaders  seemed  uncertain  what  to  do ;  but  as 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  seeing  large  parties 
of  us,  instead  of  running,  as  I  feared  they  might, 
they  at  length  turned  about  and  began  slowly  to 
work  backward  in  the  direction  from  which  they 
had  come.  By  nightfall  the  herd  was  on  its  old 


146  Tbe  Bison 

feeding  ground,  and  there  we  left  it,  and  there  it 
remained  until  spring,  and  would,  no  doubt,  have 
remained  longer,  but,  unluckily,  the  Seventh  Cav- 
alry, under  General  Custer,  rode  in  upon  it,  as 
they  came  down  the  creek  to  the  post  for  sup- 
plies, after  their  unsuccessful  chase  after  the 
Cheyennes,  who  had  run  away  from  General 
Hancock.  General  Custer  detailed  two  troops 
with  orders  to  secure  meat  for  the  command. 
After  chasing  it,  and  killing  forty-four  head,  the 
herd  was  scattered,  and  never  returned.  The 
herd  supplied  the  post  (consisting  of  about  three 
hundred  officers  and  men)  with  fresh  beef  from 
October  16,  1866,  until  about  April  20,  1867." 

The  buffalo  calf,  when  captured  very  young, 
was  easily  tamed.  Indeed,  nothing  more  was 
needed  at  times  than  to  permit  the  calf  to  suck 
the  fingers  for  a  moment  or  two,  when  it  would 
follow  the  rider  into  camp,  and  seemed  to  be 
wholly  without  fear  of  man.  As  already  stated, 
when  very  young  it  is  hidden  by  its  mother,  and, 
like  the  young  of  deer,  elk,  antelope,  and  other 
ruminants,  it  can  then  be  captured,  and  makes 
no  effort  to  escape.  This,  by  many  writers,  has 
been  denounced  as  stupidity  and  dulness.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  merely  following  out  the 


The  Bison  i47 

protective  instinct  which  is  common  to  the  young 
of  many  large  mammals,  at  a  time  when  they  are 
without  weapons  for  self-protection,  and  without 
strength  or  speed  to  save  themselves  by  flight. 

At  various  times  during  the  last  two  hundred 
years,  attempts  have  been  made  to  domesticate 
the  buffalo,  and  with  entire  success.  But  these 
attempts  have  never  been  continued  long  enough 
to  be  productive  of  any  economic  results.  Never- 
theless, buffalo  were  kept  in  captivity  from  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  toward 
the  end  of  that  century  were  actually  domesti- 
cated, bred,  and  crossed  with  domestic  cattle  in 
Virginia,  and  somewhat  later  in  Kentucky.  The 
very  full  account  given  to  Mr.  Audubon  by  Mr. 
Robert  Wycliff,  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  1843, 
has  often  been  quoted,  and  all  the  experiments 
since  made  have  confirmed  the  conclusions  then 
stated.  It  was  proved,  and  is  now  well  known, 
that  the  buffalo,  in  domestication,  are  easily 
handled,  respect  fences,  and  are  but  little  more 
difficult  to  control  than  domestic  cattle ;  that  the 
male  buffalo  crosses  readily  with  the  domestic 
cow;  that  the  progeny  of  the  two  species  are 
fertile  with  either  species  and  among  themselves. 
It  has  also  been  demonstrated  that  the  cross-bred 


148  The  Bison 

animal  is  larger  than  either  parent,  and  so  makes 
a  better  beef  animal.  Besides,  its  hide  yields  a 
robe  which,  if  not  equal  to  that  of  the  buffalo,  is, 
at  least,  vastly  superior  to  the  hide  of  the  ordinary 
beef.  More  important  than  either  the  beef  or  the 
robe,  is  the  very  greatly  increased  hardiness  of  the 
cross-bred  animal,  which  enables  it  to  endure  ex- 
tremes of  cold  and  snow,  which  would  destroy 
the  ordinary  domestic  cattle. 

From  the  days  of  Robert  Wycliff,  almost  to  the 
time  when  Mr.  C.  J.  Jones,  of  Kansas,  began  experi- 
ments in  breeding  buffalo,  little  or  nothing  had 
been  done  in  this  direction.  A  few  years  earlier 
Mr.  S.  L.  Bedson,  of  Stony  Mountain,  Mani- 
toba, set  to  work  at  the  same  problem,  and  both 
men  met  with  abundant  measure  of  success.  Both 
bred  pure  buffalo  in  considerable  numbers,  and 
both  succeeded  in  breeding  the  buffalo  with  the 
domestic  cow,  and  securing  a  progeny  which  was 
remarkable  for  size  and  for  the  robes  produced. 
Indeed,  Mr.  Hornaday  quotes  Mr.  Bedson  as  say- 
ing that  the  three-quarter  bred  animal  produces 
"an  extra  good  robe  which  will  readily  bring 
forty  to  fifty  dollars  in  any  market  where  there 
is  a  demand  for  robes." 

It    is    altogether   possible   that   the   time   for 


The  Bison  149 

establishing  a  race  of  buffalo  cattle  has  past. 
The  buffalo  are  extinct,  and  the  number  of  ani- 
mals in  captivity  to  be  drawn  on,  very  small. 
Nevertheless,  the  great  preponderance  of  bulls 
among  these  domesticated  buffalo,  makes  it  pos- 
sible that  something  in  this  direction  might  be 
done,  though  the  chances  now  are  much  against  it. 

The  buffalo  has  often  been  broken  to  the  yoke. 
Robert  Wycliff  says  of  this  animal,  "  He  walks 
more  actively,  and  I  think  has  more  strength 
than  an  ox  of  the  same  weight.  I  have  broken 
them  to  the  yoke  and  found  them  capable  of 
making  excellent  oxen ;  and  for  drawing  wagons, 
carts,  or  other  heavily  laden  vehicles  on  long 
journeys,  they  would,  I  think,  be  greatly  prefer- 
able to  the  common  ox."  Under  the  yoke,  how- 
ever, they  are  said  to  be  somewhat  difficult  to 
control,  and  cases  are  cited  where  broken  buffalo 
have,  for  various  causes,  run  away,  to  the  great 
detriment  of  the  load  they  were  hauling.  In  the 
year  1874  a  settler  on  Trail  Creek,  in  Montana, 
told  me  that  he  had  a  pair  of  bulls  broken  to  the 
yoke,  and  declared  that  they  would  haul  more 
than  "  any  two  yoke  of  cattle  on  the  place." 

There  is  another  reason  besides  the  lack  of 
buffalo  for  thinking  that  no  systematic  attempt 


The  Bison 

to  cross  these  animals  with  domestic  cattle  will 
ever  be  attempted.  The  days  of  free  ranging, 
where  the  cattle  are  turned  out  on  the  prairie  to 
look  after  themselves,  winter  and  summer,  are 
almost  over,  and  year  by  year  the  area  of  the  free 
range  is  becoming  more  and  more  contracted. 
The  advantages  of  great  size  and  a  valuable  robe 
would  still  be  an  attraction  to  the  farmer ;  but  the 
hardiness  which  enables  the  half-breed  animal  to 
endure  almost  any  winter  weather  will  soon  cease 
to  be  required,  because  the  cattle  of  almost  all 
the  western  country  will  be  kept  under  fence,  and 
fed  on  hay  during  the  winter. 

From  time  immemorial  the  buffalo  furnished 
food  to  the  Indians,  and  with  the  coming  into  the 
land  of  the  white  man  it  supported  him  also. 
What  the  primitive  method  was  by  which  the 
Indians  hunted  buffalo  we  do  not  know,  but  at 
the  time  the  redmen  became  known  to  the 
whites,  when  they  were  footmen,  the  only 
method  of  securing  this  animal  was  by  the  sur- 
round, or  by  driving  it  into  pens  from  which  the 
buffalo  could  not  escape,  and  where  they  were 
easily  destroyed.  Such  pens  were  built  at  the 
foot  of  cut  bluffs  or  low  cliffs,  over  which  the 
buffalo  were  driven ;  or,  in  the  more  open  and 


The  Bison  151 

flat  country,  where  ravines  with  steep  sides  were 
not  found,  a  long  fenced  causeway  was  often 
built,  on  which  the  buffalo  were  driven,  and 
when  reaching  its  end,  the  leaders,  by  reason  of 
the  pressure  of  those  behind,  were  forced  to  jump 
into  the  pen,  and  the  others  followed,  until  all 
were  captured.  Often,  if  the  drive  was  made 
over  a  high  bluff,  the  fall  killed  many  of  the 
beasts,  and  even  when  this  did  not  take  place, 
many  of  the  younger  and  weaker  animals  were 
destroyed  by  their  fellows  in  the  tremendous 
crush  which  took  place  within  the  pen. 

No  sooner  did  the  buffalo  find  themselves  con- 
fined, than  they  began  to  race  about  the  en- 
closure, and  the  men  standing  on  the  logs  which 
formed  its  sides,  shot  them  with  their  stone- 
headed  arrows  as  they  ran  by,  until  at  length  all 
had  fallen. 

The  principle  of  the  foot  surround  was  not 
different  from  this.  When  a  herd  of  buffalo 
was  found,  the  Indians  waited  for  a  day  when 
the  wind  did  not  blow,  and  then,  creeping  toward 
the  buffalo,  they  surrounded  them  on  all  sides. 
When  the  line  was  fairly  complete,  one  man 
would  show  himself,  and  perhaps  frighten  the 
buffalo  by  waving  his  robe  at  them.  They 


152  The  Bison 

would  start  to  run,  when  the  men  stationed  at 
the  point  of  the  circle  toward  which  they  were 
directing  their  course  would  show  themselves, 
toss  their  robes  in  the  air,  and  turn  them  in 
another  direction.  Thus,  whichever  way  they 
ran,  they  found  people  standing  before  them,  and 
soon  they  began  to  run  around  in  a  circle  within 
the  ring  of  men,  and  continued  to  do  this  until 
they  became  exhausted.  Little  by  little  the  men 
drew  closer  together,  making  the  circle  smaller, 
and  soon  the  buffalo  were  running  near  enough 
to  them  for  them  to  be  shot  by  their  arrows. 

It  did  not  always  happen  that  the  hunt  was 
successful.  Sometimes  in  the  pen  a  strong  bull 
might  find  a  place  where  no  one  was  standing, 
and  might  leap  over  the  barrier,  or  at  least  leap 
on  it,  throwing  his  whole  weight  against  it.  Very 
likely  he  would  be  followed  by  others,  and  per- 
haps a  number  would  succeed  in  surmounting 
the  wall ;  or  they  might  even  break  it  down,  and 
then  the  whole  herd  would  stream  out  of  the  pen 
and  be  lost.  Sometimes,  too,  in  the  surround, 
especially  if  the  herd  of  buffalo  was  large,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  turn  them,  and  they  would 
break  their  way  through  the  ring  of  men.  In 
like  manner,  when,  as  sometimes  happened,  the 


The  Bison  153 

Indians  set  up  their  lodges  all  about  the  herd, 
the  buffalo  might  yet  find  a  way  to  break  through 
and  escape. 

If,  however,  all  went  well,  and  a  good  part  of 
the  herd  was  killed,  there  was  great  rejoicing  all 
through  the  camp.  Everybody  was  happy,  since 
now,  for  some  days,  food  would  be  abundant, 
and  every  one  would  have  enough  to  eat;  and 
there  is  nothing  that  the  Indian  dreads  so  much 
as  hunger. 

Later,  after  the  Indians  obtained  horses  and 
iron-pointed  arrows,  and,  later  still,  repeating 
rifles,  these  old  methods  were  all  given  up.  It 
was  easier  to  chase  the  buffalo  on  horseback,  and 
their  packhorses  gave  them  a  ready  means  for 
bringing  the  spoils  of  the  chase  back  to  the  camp. 
Now,  too,  they  used  the  lance  in  hunting,  driving 
the  horse  close  up  on  the  buffalo's  right  side, 
holding  the  lance  across  the  body,  and,  with  a 
mighty  two-handed  thrust,  sending  the  keen  steel 
deep  into  the  animal's  vitals. 

Perhaps  no  more  exciting  scene  could  be  wit- 
nessed than  one  of  the  old-time  buffalo  chases  by 
the  Indians.  Naked  themselves,  they  rode  their 
naked  horses,  carrying  their  quivers  of  arrows  on 
their  backs  or  by  their  sides,  and  their  bows  in 


154  The  Bison 

their  hands.  The  good  buffalo  horses  were  swift 
of  foot  to  catch  the  cow,  admirably  trained  for 
running  over  the  rough  prairie,  often  dangerous 
from  badger  holes  or  burrows  of  the  prairie  dog, 
and  knowing  how  to  approach  the  buffalo,  and 
also  how  to  avoid  its  charge  —  trained,  in  fact, 
just  as  well  as  the  cow-pony  is  trained,  which 
knows  exactly  what  is  expected  of  him  when 
he  is  cutting  cattle  out  of  a  bunch.  The  chase 
was  conducted  in  silence,  and  the  only  sound 
heard  was  the  rumble  of  a  thousand  hoofs  —  dull 
where  the  ground  was  soft,  and  sharp  if  it  hard- 
ened. If  the  herd  was  large,  the  scene  was  one 
of  great  confusion.  Buffalo  and  horses  with  their 
riders  were  dimly  seen  amid  the  cloud  of  dust 
thrown  up  by  the  fleeing  herd.  Horses  were 
constantly  overtaking  the  buffalo,  riders  were 
bending  down,  horses  were  sheering  off,  buffalo 
were  falling.  The  old  bulls,  passed  by  the  swift 
riders,  were  turning  off  and  fleeing,  singly  or  in 
little  groups,  to  right  and  to  left,  while  the  swifter 
cows,  with  heads  down  and  tails  in  air,  were  press- 
ing forward  in  flight  to  escape  the  Indians,  who 
were  riding  with  their  rearmost  ranks. 

Not  greatly  differing  from  this,  save  that  guns 
were  used  and  there  was  much  yelling  and  noise, 


The  Bison  155 

were  the  hunts  of  the  wild  Red  River  half-breeds. 
These  were  pursued  on  horseback,  and  the  men 
were  armed  with  the  old  Hudson  Bay  smooth- 
bore flint-lock  guns.  Powder  was  carried  in  a 
horn  and  balls  in  the  mouth.  When  he  had 
discharged  his  gun,  the  hunter  poured  the  powder 
from  the  horn  directly  into  the  barrel,  guessing 
at  the  quantity,  slipped  a  ball  from  the  mouth 
into  the  barrel,  the  gun  was  given  a  jar  on  the 
saddle  to  settle  the  load,  a  little  priming  was 
poured  into  the  pan,  and  he  was  ready  for 
another  shot. 

On  such  hunts  the  Red  River  half-breeds 
transported  their  families  and  their  property 
almost  entirely  in  the  well-known  Red  River 
carts,  each  drawn  by  a  single  horse,  and  con- 
taining, besides  a  load  of  baggage,  a  woman  and 
perhaps  two  or  three  children. 

Besides  these  wholesale  methods  of  taking 
buffalo,  of  course  they  were  killed  singly  by  men 
who  crept  close  enough  to  them  to  drive  even  a 
stone-headed  arrow  deep  enough  into  the  sides  to 
reach  the  life.  Often,  when  the  buffalo  were  in 
situations  where  it  was  impossible  to  approach 
them,  men  disguised  as  wolves  crept  in  among 
the  herd,  and  killed  buffalo  with  their  arrows. 


156  The  Bison 

Catlin  and  others  have  described  and  figured  this 
method  of  approach,  which  at  the  present  day  is 
traditional  only  among  the  Indians ;  yet  an  old 
friend,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  almost  a  hun- 
dred years  old,  has  told  me  that  he  had  many 
times  killed  buffalo  in  this  way,  either  alone  or 
in  company  with  some  Indian  friend. 

Indians  and  half-breeds  alike  preserved  the 
flesh  of  the  buffalo  by  drying  it.  The  strips  or 
wide  flakes  of  meat  were  cut  about  one-quarter 
of  an  inch  thick  and  hung  on  scaffolds  exposed 
to  sun  and  air.  In  a  day  or  two  the  meat  was 
thoroughly  dried,  when  it  was  bent  into  proper 
lengths,  and  either  tied  in  bundles  or  done  up  in 
parfleches.  It  was  from  this  dried  meat  that  the 
well-known  pemmican  was  made.  The  dried 
meat  was  roasted  over  a  fire  of  coals,  and  then 
broken  up  by  pounding  with  sticks  on  a  hide,  or 
by  pounding  between  two  stones.  This  pulver- 
ized flesh  was  mixed  with  the  melted  fat  of  the 
buffalo,  and  after  the  whole  mass  had  been  thor- 
oughly stirred,  was  packed  in  sacks  made  of 
buffalo  skin,  which  were  then  sewed  up  with 
sinew,  and  as  the  mass  gradually  cooled  the  sack 
became  hard,  and  would  keep  for  a  very  long 
time. 


The  Bison  157 

The  killing  of  buffalo,  as  described,  was  in  no 
sense  sport;  instead,  it  was  work  of  the  hardest 
kind.  The  swift  ride  over  the  dry  plains  through 
the  clouds  of  dust,  the  killing  of  the  buffalo,  and 
finally  the  cutting  up  of  the  animals  was  physical 
labor  far  harder  than  most  of  that  performed  by 
civilized  man.  Usually,  the  buffalo  were  killed 
far  from  water,  and  the  severe  work  that  the  man 
had  been  doing  and  the  summer  heat  made  him 
very  thirsty.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  he 
slaked  his  thirst  by  devouring  the  liver,  sprinkled 
with  gall,  or  by  eating  raw  the  gelatinous  nose  of 
the  buffalo. 

The  description  of  a  butchering,  given  by  Au- 
dubon  in  his  "  Missouri  River  Journal,"  is  very 
graphic,  and  is  worth  quoting  here :  — 

"  The  moment  that  the  buffalo  is  dead,  three 
or  four  hunters,  their  faces  and  hands  often  cov- 
ered with  gunpowder,  and  with  pipes  lighted, 
place  the  animal  on  its  belly,  and,  by  drawing  out 
each  fore  and  hind  leg,  fix  the  body  so  that  it 
cannot  fall  again;  an  incision  is  made  near  the 
root  of  the  tail,  immediately  above  the  root  in 
fact,  and  the  skin  cut  to  the  neck,  and  taken  off 
in  the  roughest  manner  imaginable,  downward 
and  on  both  sides  at  the  same  time.  The  knives 


158  The  Bison 

are  going  in  all  directions,  and  many  wounds 
occur  in  the  hands  and  fingers,  but  are  rarely 
attended  to  at  this  time.  The  pipe  of  one  man 
has  perhaps  given  out,  and  with  his  bloody  hands 
he  takes  the  one  of  his  nearest  companion,  who 
has  his  own  hands  equally  bloody.  Now  one 
breaks  in  the  skull  of  the  bull,  and  with  bloody 
fingers  draws  out  the  hot  brains  and  swallows 
them  with  peculiar  zest ;  another  has  now 
reached  the  liver,  and  is  gobbling  down  enor- 
mous pieces  of  it;  while  perhaps  a  third,  who 
has  come  to  the  paunch,  is  feeding  luxuriously 
on  some  —  to  me  —  disgusting-looking  offal. 
But  the  main  business  proceeds.  The  flesh  is 
taken  off  from  the  sides  of  the  boss,  or  hump 
bones,  from  where  these  bones  begin  to  the  very 
neck,  and  the  hump  itself  is  thus  destroyed. 
The  hunters  gave  the  name  of  '  hump '  to  the 
mere  bones  when  slightly  covered  by  flesh ;  and 
it  is  cooked,  and  is  very  good  when  fat,  young, 
and  well  broiled.  The  pieces  of  flesh  taken 
from  the  sides  of  these  bones  are  called  filets, 
and  are  the  best  portion  of  the  animal  when 
properly  cooked.  The  forequarters,  or  shoulders, 
are  taken  off,  as  well  as  the  hind  ones,  and  the 
sides,  covered  by  a  thin  portion  of  flesh,  called 


Tbe  Bison  159 

the  depouille,  are  taken  out.  Then  the  ribs  are 
broken  off  at  the  vertebrae,  as  well  as  the  boss 
bones.  The  marrow-bones,  which  are  those  of 
the  fore  and  hind  legs  only,  are  cut  out  last. 
The  feet  usually  remain  attached  to  these ;  the 
paunch  is  stripped  of  its  covering  of  layers  of  fat, 
the  head  and  backbone  are  left  to  the  wolves. 
The  pipes  are  all  emptied,  the  hands,  faces,  and 
clothes  all  bloody,  and  now  a  glass  of.  grog  is 
often  enjoyed,  as  the  stripping  off  the  skin  and 
flesh  of  three  or  four  animals  is  truly  very  hard 
work.  .  .  .  When  the  wind  is  high,  and  the  buf- 
faloes run  toward  it,  the  hunters'  guns  often  snap, 
and  it  is  during  their  exertions  to  replenish  their 
pans  that  the  powder  flies  and  sticks  to  the  mois- 
ture every  moment  accumulating  on  their  faces ; 
but  nothing  stops  these  daring  and  usually  pow- 
erful men,  who,  the  moment  the  chase  is  ended, 
leap  from  their  horses,  let  them  graze,  and  begin 
their  butcher-like  work." 

The  Indian  and  the  half-breed  killed  the  buf- 
falo for  their  support,  —  for  food,  clothing,  shelter, 
and  many  of  their  implements.  The  civilized 
buffalo  skinner  exterminated  it  for  its  hides. 
There  was  another  class  which  did  something 
toward  wiping  out  the  buffalo,  yet  the  numbers 


160  Tbe  Bison 

killed  by  them  were  inconsiderable  in  comparison 
with  those  killed  for  commercial  purposes.  This 
class  comprised  those  who  ran  buffalo  for  sport. 
Buffalo-running  was  not  a  difficult  art,  nor  es- 
pecially exciting,  except  so  far  as  it  is  exciting 
to  chase  and  overtake  some  creature  that  is  try- 
ing to  escape.  Provided  a  man  had  a  good 
horse  and  was  fairly  accustomed  to  riding,  there 
was  little  difficulty  and  little  danger  in  the  buffalo 
chase.  At  the  same  time,  the  combination  of  the 
swift  ride,  the  rough  country,  the  dust  and  dirt 
thrown  up  by  the  flying  herd,  and  the  close  prox- 
imity of  the  great  beasts  have  reduced  many  a 
buffalo  runner  on  his  first  chase  to  a  pitch  of 
nervousness  which  made  him  do  precisely  the 
wrong  thing.  There  have  been  cases,  not  a  few, 
where  riders,  trying  to  kill  buffalo  with  a  pistol, 
have  shot  their  own  horses  instead  of  the  buffalo ; 
and  at  least  one  case  came  to  my  knowledge 
where  the  excited  hunter,  riding  up  on  the  right 
instead  of  the  left  side  of  the  bull,  and  shooting 
across  his  own  body,  managed  to  shoot  himself 
in  the  left  arm. 

There  was  something  rather  exhilarating  in 
the  headlong  ride  after  buffalo,  a  game  not  un- 
like "follow  my  leader,"  which  boys  play,  where 


The  Bison  161 

the  leader  chooses  the  roughest  and  most  difficult 
ground  over  which  he  can  pass,  and  the  follower 
is  obliged  to  take  the  same  route.  But  buffalo- 
hunting  is  now  a  sport  of  the  distant  past,  and  it 
is  needless  to  speak  of  it  at  any  length. 

In  the  days  of  its  abundance  the  buffalo  was  a 
most  impressive  species,  and  their  enormous  num- 
bers have  been  a  theme  on  which  many  writers 
have  delighted  to  linger.  Adjectives  have  failed 
them  to  describe  the  multitudes  of  buffalo  seen, 
and  it  was  not  unusual  for  men  to  travel  long 
distances  among  great  herds,  which  made  slow 
way  for  them  as  they  passed  along.  Many  cal- 
culations have  been  made  of  the  numbers  of 
buffalo  seen  at  one  time;  but,  after  all,  these 
can  be  little  more  than  guesswork.  Terms  like 
thousands  and  millions,  so  commonly  used,  have 
little  or  no  meaning,  for  we  have  no  standard  of 
comparison  by  which  to  measure  them.  All  the 
earlier  writers,  however  graphic  their  descriptions 
of  their  numbers,  fail  to  impress  the  reader,  be- 
cause no  one  could  comprehend  such  numbers 
except  by  seeing  them.  Dr.  Allen,  Mr.  Horna- 
day,  Colonel  Dodge,  and  many  of  the  old  explor- 
ers, give  much  matter  bearing  on  this  subject. 
A  few  lines  from  the  Journal  of  Alexander  Henry 


1 62  Tbe  Bison 

give  some  idea  of  their  numbers  on  the  Red 
River.  He  says,  under  date  of  September  18, 
1800:  "  I  took  my  usual  morning  view  from  the 
top  of  my  oak,  and  saw  more  buffalo  than  ever. 
They  formed  one  body,  commencing  about  half  a 
mile  from  camp,  whence  the  plain  was  covered 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach.  They  were  moving  slowly  south- 
ward, and  the  meadow  seemed  as  if  in  motion. 
This  afternoon  I  rode  a  few  miles  up  Park  River. 
The  few  spots  of  wood  along  it  have  been  rav- 
aged by  buffalo;  none  but  the  large  trees  are 
standing,  the  barks  of  which  are  rubbed  perfectly 
smooth,  and  heaps  of  wool  and  hair  lie  at  the 
foot  of  the  trees.  The  small  wood  and  brush 
are  entirely  destroyed,  and  even  the  grass  is  not 
permitted  to  grow  in  the  points  of  the  wood. 
The  bare  ground  is  more  trampled  by  these  cat- 
tle than  the  gate  of  the  farm  yard." 

Even  in  recent  times  one  might  journey  for 
days  at  a  time  through  herds,  which  to  the  eye 
seemed  absolutely  to  cover  a  blackened  prairie, 
and  I  myself  have  travelled  for  weeks  through  the 
Northwest  without,  at  any  time  during  the  day, 
being  out  of  sight  of  buffalo.  How  many  millions 
there  were  in  the  great  herds  through  which  we 


The  Bison  163 

used  to  pass,  it  is  useless  now  to  compute.  They 
have  all  gone.  But  over  a  vast  extent  of  the 
western  country  they  have  left  memorials  still 
visible  and  long  to  endure  in  the  deep  trails 
which  furrow  the  prairie  in  all  directions. 

Other  mementos  still  to  be  seen,  and  stirring 
the  heart  of  the  old-timer,  though  to  the  man  of 
to-day  they  are  without  a  meaning,  are  the  huge 
erratic  boulders  which  lie  here  and  there  over 
the  prairie  where  they  were  dropped  by  the  great 
ice  mass  in  its  passage  down  from  the  highland. 
Against  such  boulders  the  buffalo  used  to  rub 
their  bodies,  and  such  masses  of  granite  or  of 
flinty  quartzite,  polished  and  with  their  sharp 
angles  worn  away  by  the  rubbing  against  them 
of  the  tough  hides,  may  often  be  seen.  About 
such  a  rock,  deep  worn  in  the  ground,  is  the 
trench,  where  the  bulls  and  the  cows  and  the 
younger  animals  once  marched  as  they  pushed 
their  sides  against  the  hard  rock,  their  hoofs 
cutting  the  soil  into  fine  dust  to  be  blown  away 
by  the  wind.  The  angles  of  these  old  rubbing- 
stones  are  still  discolored  by  the  grease  left  on 
them  from  the  buffalo's  skins,  and  looking  at 
them,  one  might  fancy  that  they  had  been  used 
only  yesterday. 


164  The  Bison 

Here,  then,  are  monuments  of  imperishable 
granite,  fashioned  by  a  race  of  dumb  creatures, 
and  telling  to  him  who  can  read  their  sculpturing 
a  long  story  of  life  and  power  and  multitude  for- 
ever gone.  From  earliest  time  man  has  set  up 
all  over  the  earth  his  enduring  memorials  to  hold 
the  wonder  of  later  ages ;  but  of  the  races  of 
the  beasts,  which  one  has  done  this,  save  only  the 
bison  ? 


The  Bison  165 

AMERICAN    BISON 

(BOS    BISON1) 

The  great  elevation  of  the  fore  quarters,  the 
mass  of  long  hair  clothing  the  head,  shoulders, 
and  fore  part  of  the  body,  together  with  the  pecul- 
iar form  of  the  head  and  horns,  the  latter  of  which 
are  cylindrical,  serve  at  once  to  distinguish  the 
bison  from  the  other  members  of  the  ox  tribe. 
Some  of  the  points  distinguishing  the  American 
bison  from  its  European  cousin  are  that  the  mass 
of  hair  on  the  fore  quarters  is  longer,  the  form 
of  the  skull  is  different,  the  horns  are  shorter, 
thicker,  blunter,  and  more  sharply  curved.  In 
the  skull  of  the  American  animal  the  sockets 
of  the  eyes  have  a  more  tubular  form. 

Height  at  shoulder  about  6  feet ;  weight  from 
15  to  20  hundredweight;  an  adult  bull  weighed 
by  W.  T.  Hornaday  scaled  1727  pounds. 

Distribution.  —  The  greater  portion  of  western 
North  America,  ascending  to  the  Great  Slave  Lake, 
and  descending  to  New  Mexico  and  Texas ;  now 
nearly  exterminated.  American  writers  recognize 
two  races  (or  species),  the  prairie  bison  (B.  bison 
typicus)  and  the  larger  wood  bison  (B.  bison  atha- 
basccz}  of  the  forest  highlands  of  the  northwest. 

1  "  Records  of  Big  Game,"  Rowland  Ward,  third  edition. 


i66 


The  Bison 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  HORNS 


LENGTH 

ON 

OUTSIDE 
CURVE 

CIRCUM- 
FERENCE 

TIP  TO 
TIP 

WIDEST 
INSIDE 
SPREAD 

LOCALITY 

OWNER 

-*i 

*si 

35 
outside 

Northern 
Montana 

W.  F.  Sheard 

90} 

15 

30* 

W'yoming 

Hon.  F. 
Thellusson 

-20i 
-19 

164 

331 

Western 
Montana 

W.  H.  Root 
P.  Liebinger 

18} 

-18} 

-18 

Ml 

14 

26J 

16} 

29 

Western 
Montana 
Sioux  Country 

Montana 

The  late 
J.  S.  Jameson 
Sir  Greville 
Smyth,  Bart. 
F.  Sauter 

I7| 

llf 

'Si 

•• 

? 

H.R.H.  the 
Duke  of  Saxe- 

Coburg  and 
Gotha 

-i7i 

«i 

•• 

Southwestern 

Montana 

Theodore 
Roosevelt 

«7i 

12 

25i 

Wyoming 

H.R.H.  le  Due 
d'Orleans 

1*1 

*3i 

21 

? 

Viscount 

Powerscourt 

J7i 

14 

lOf 

:7i 

Yellowstone, 
Montana 

British  Museum 
Count  E.  Hoyos 

i6f 

'*} 

24 

Bighorn  Mts., 
Wyoming 
Colorado 

Moreton 
Frewen 
Sir  Edmund  G. 

I6J 

•31 

Hi 

> 

Loder,  Bart. 
Duke  of 
Portland 

L6! 

>5i 

'4} 

251 

19! 

Colorado 
Wyoming 

Sir  Edmund  G. 
Loder,  Bart. 
St.  George 
Littledale 

-15.8 
H 

12.14 

IS 

Indian  Terri- 
tory, near  Texas 
North  Park, 
Colorado 

Prince  Henry  of 
Liechtenstein 
Col.  Ralph 
Vivian 

13} 

12 

I7i 

| 

G.  Wrey 
Hon.  Walter 

Rothschild 

1  Wood  Bison. 


THE   MOUNTAIN   SHEEP:    HIS   WAYS 

BY  OWEN  WISTER 


ROCKY   MOUNTAIN    SHEEP 


THE    MOUNTAIN    SHEEP: 
HIS    WAYS 

UPON  a  Sunday  morning,  the  loth  of  July 
1892,  I  awaked  among  my  scanty  yet  entan- 
gling Pullman  blankets,  and  persuaded  the  broken- 
springed  window-shade  of  my  lower  berth  to  slide 
upward  sufficiently  for  a  view  of  Livingston, 
Montana.  Outside  I  beheld  with  something 
more  than  pleasure  a  fat  and  flourishing  moun- 
tain ram.  He  was  tethered  to  a  telegraph  pole, 
and  he  scanned  with  an  indifference  bred  by 
much  familiarity  our  sleeping-car,  which  had 
come  from  St.  Paul,  being  dropped  last  night 
from  the  coast-bound  train,  because  it  was  this 
morning  to  trundle  its  load  of  tourists  up  the 
Yellowstone  Park  branch  to  Cinnabar.  The 
ram  had  been  looking  at  Eastern  tourists  and 
their  cars  long  enough  for  the  slow  gaze  of  his 
eye  to  express  not  a  kindred  but  the  same  con- 
tempt which  smouldered  in  the  stare  of  the 
Indians  at  Custer  station,  of  the  cow  punchers 

171 


1 72  The  Mountain  Sheep 

at  Billings,  of  every  Rocky  Mountain  creature, 
indeed,  beneath  whose  observation  the  Eastern 
tourist  passes.  Dear  reader,  go  stand  opposite 
the  lion  at  the  zoo  if  you  don't  know  what  I 
mean.  So  patent  was  the  stigma  cast  that  it 
fantastically  came  into  my  head  to  step  down  and 
explain  to  the  animal  that  I  was  not  a  tourist, 
that  I  had  hunted  and  slain  members  of  his 
species  before  now,  and  should  probably  do  so 
again.  And  while  thus  I  sat  speculating  among 
the  Pullman  blankets,  the  ram  leaped  irrelevantly 
off  the  earth,  waved  his  fore  legs,  came  down,  ran 
a  tilt  at  the  telegraph  pole  as  though  at  a  quintain, 
and  the  next  instant  was  grazing  serene  on  the 
flat  with  an  air  of  having  had  no  connection 
whatever  with  the  late  disturbance. 

What  had  started  him  off  like  that  ?  Extreme 
youth  ?  No ;  for  when  I  came  to  hear  about 
him,  he  was  five  years  old  —  a  maturity  corre- 
sponding in  us  men  to  about  thirty.  It  was 
simply  his  own  charming  temperament.  No 
locomotive  had  approached ;  moreover  for  loco- 
motives he,  as  I  was  later  to  observe,  did  not 
care  a  hang ;  no  citizen  old  or  young  of  either 
sex  had  given  him  offence ;  nor  was  there  stir  of 
any  kind  in  Livingston,  Montana,  this  fine  early 


Tbe  Mountain  Sheep  173 

Sunday  morning.  When  I  presently  stood  on 
the  platform,  only  the  wind  was  blowing  down 
from  the  sunny  snow-fields,  and  that  not  bleakly, 
while  from  high  invisible  directions  came  thinly 
a  pleasant  tankling  of  cow-bells. 

Not  two  minutes  had  I  been  on  the  platform 
when  the  ram  did  it  again.  Yes,  it  was  merely 
his  charming  temperament ;  and  often  since, 
very  often,  when  encompassed  with  ponderous 
acquaintance,  have  I  envied  him  his  blithe  and 
relaxing  privilege.  I  was  now  thankful  to  learn 
that  the  branch  train  had  still  some  considerable 
time  to  wait  for  the  train  from  Tacoma,  before  it 
could  take  me  from  the  ram's  company;  no  such 
good  chance  to  watch  a  live  healthy  mountain 
sheep  on  his  own  native  heath  was  likely  again 
to  be  mine,  and  after  breakfast  I  sought  his 
owner  at  once. 

"  It's  a  fine  dy,"  said  the  owner. 

"  And  a  very  fine  ram,"  I  assured  him. 

"  He's  quite  tyme,"  the  owner  went  on.  "  You 
can  have  him  for  five  hundred." 

"You're  a  long  way  from  London,"  was  my 
comment ;  and  he  asked  if  I,  too,  were  English. 
But  I  was  not,  nor  had  I  any  wish  to  bear  away 
the  ram,  skipping  and  leaping  into  civilization. 


174  The  Mountain  Sheep 

Three  hundred  pounds  would,  I  suppose, 
have  been  a  little  heavier  than  he  was,  but  not 
much ;  he  stood  near  as  high  as  my  waist,  and 
he  had  at  some  period  of  his  long,  long  ancestry 
marched  across  to  us  from  Asia  upon  his  lengthy 
un-sheeplike  legs  —  skipped  over  the  icy  straits 
before  Adam  (let  alone  Behring)  was  in  the 
world,  and  while  the  straits  themselves  waited  for 
the  splitting  sea  to  break  the  bridge  of  land  be- 
tween Kamchatka  and  Alaska.  This  is  the 
best  guess  which  science  can  make  concerning 
our  sheep's  mysterious  origin.  Upon  our  soil, 
none  of  nature's  graveyards  hold  his  bones  pre- 
served until  late  in  the  geological  day ;  earlier 
than  the  glacial  period  neither  he  nor  his  equally 
anomalous  comrade,  the  white  goat,  would  seem 
to  have  been  with  us ;  and  we  may  comfortably 
suppose  that  sheep  and  goat  took  up  their  jour- 
ney together  and  came  over  the  great  old 
Aleutian  bridge  which  Behring  found  later  in 
fragments.  Having  landed  up  there  in  the  well- 
nigh  Polar  north,  they  skipped  their  way  east 
and  south  among  our  Pacific  and  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, until,  by  the  time  we  ourselves  came  over 
to  live  in  the  North  American  continent,  they 
had  —  the  sheep  especially  —  spread  themselves 


The  Mountain  Sheep  175 

widely,  and  were  occupying  a  handsome  domain 
when  we  met  them. 

"  Among  other  things  we  procured  two  horns 
of  the  animal  .  .  .  known  to  the  Mandans  by 
the  name  of  ahsahta  .  .  .  winding  like  those 
of  a  ram." 

This,  so  far  as  I  know,  is  the  first  word  of  the 
mountain  sheep  recorded  by  an  American.  Thus 
wrote  Lewis  on  December  the  twenty-second, 
1804,  being  then  in  winter  camp  with  the  Mandan 
Indians,  not  many  miles  up  the  river  from  where 
to-day  the  Northern  Pacific's  bridge  joins  Bis- 
marck to  Mandan.  We  find  him  again,  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  the  May  following,  when  he  has 
proceeded  up  the  Missouri  a  little  beyond  the 
Musselshell,  writing,  "  In  the  course  of  the  day 
we  also  saw  several  herds  of  the  big-horned 
animals  among  the  steep  cliffs  on  the  north,  and 
killed  several  of  them ; "  as  to  which  one  of  his 
fellow  explorers  correctly  comments  in  his  own 
record,  "  But  they  very  little  resemble  sheep, 
except  in  the  head,  horns,  and  feet."  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  quote  a  later  reference  made  when 
the  party  was  near  the  Dearborn  River,  north, 
sixty  miles  or  so,  of  where  now  stands  the  town 
of  Helena. 


176  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

Thus  it  is  to  be  seen  that  Meriwether  Lewis, 
private  secretary  to  President  Jefferson  and 
commander  of  that  great  expedition,  met  the 
mountain  sheep  in  Dakota,  and  from  there  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains  grew  familiar  with  him; 
though  not  so  familiar  as  to  prevent  his  later 
making  a  confusion  between  sheep  and  goats, 
which,  being  handed  down,  delayed  for  many 
years  a  clear  knowledge  of  these  animals.  To 
this  I  shall  return  when  goats  are  in  ques- 
tion. 

Until  very  lately,  until  the  eighties,  that  is  to 
say,  sheep  were  still  to  be  found  in  plenty  where 
Meriwether  Lewis  found  them  among  the  Bad 
Lands  of  Dakota ;  and  they  dwelt  in  most  ranges 
of  the  Western  mountains  from  Alaska  to  Sonora. 
They  had  not  taken  to  the  peaks  exclusively 
then;  the  great  table-land  was  high  enough  for 
them.  I  very  well  recall  a  drive  in  July,  1885, 
when,  from  the  wagon  in  which  I  sat,  I  saw  a 
little  band  of  them  watching  us  pass,  in  a  country 
of  sage-brush  and  buttes  so  insignificant  as  not  to 
figure  as  hills  upon  the  map.  That  was  between 
Medicine  Bow  and  the  Platte  River.  To  meet 
the  bighorn  there  to-day  would  be  a  very  ex- 
traordinary circumstance ;  and  as  for  Dakota, 


ALERT—  (Ouis  stonei) 


The  Mountain  Sheep  179 

there  too  has  civilization  arrived ;  and  you  will 
find  divorces  commoner  than  sheep  —  and  less 
valuable. 

It  is  Gass  whom  I  have  cited  above  as  to  the 
scant  likeness  between  this  wild  so-called  sheep 
and  the  usual  sheep  of  our  experience ;  and  it 
was  Gass  whose  word  I  remembered  this  Sun- 
day morning  at  Livingston,  while  I  stood  taking 
my  fill  of  observation.  The  ram,  as  his  owner 
had  assured  me,  was  in  all  truth  quite  "  tyme " ; 
and  you  could  examine  him  as  near  as  you 
wished.  I  took  hold  of  his  rope  and  pulled  him 
to  me,  and  rubbed  his  nose.  Like  a  sheep? 
I  have  already  spoken  of  his  long  legs.  I  now 
looked  him  over  carefully  for  a  sign  of  anything 
in  the  nature  of  fleece.  There  was  no  sign. 
Short  hair,  in  texture  not  unlike  the  antelope's 
and  in  color  not  far  from  that  gray  we  see  in 
fishing-line,  covered  him  close  and  thick.  Upon 
his  neck  and  shoulders  it  merged  with  a  very 
light  reddish  brown,  and  on  his  rump  it  became 
a  patch  much  lighter,  though  not  white.  In  fact, 
the  hue  of  his  coat  varied  subtly  all  over  him ; 
and  I  am  tempted  to  remark  in  this  connection 
that  in  describing  the  color  of  wild  animals  most 
of  us  have  been  apt  to  make  our  assertions  far 


i8o  The  Mountain  Sheep 

too  rigid.  Animals  there  are,  of  course,  com- 
pletely white,  or  black,  and  so  forth ;  but  many, 
the  more  you  scrutinize  them,  the  more  reveal 
gradations,  as  this  ram  did ;  gray  fishing-tackle 
is  only  a  rough  impression  of  his  tint  upon  the 
zoth  of  July;  on  December  the  ist  of  that  same 
year  I  saw  him  again,  and  his  hair  had  darkened 
to  something  like  a  Maltese  cat's.  Furthermore, 
I  have  seen  other  sheep  in  summer  that  struck 
me,  some  as  lighter,  and  some  as  darker,  than  the 
gray  of  fishing-tackle.  And  what,  shall  we  infer, 
do  these  variations  import?  Adjustments  to 
climate  and  environment,  state  of  the  individual's 
age  and  health,  or  several  distinct  species  of 
sheep  ?  I  think  I  should  be  shy  of  the  last  in- 
ference unless  I  were  prepared  to  accept  a  differ- 
ence in  the  color  of  the  eyes  and  hair  of  two 
brothers  as  being  a  basis  sufficient  to  class  them 
as  separate  subspecies  of  man.  It  is  a  dear 
thought  to  many  of  us  that  some  mountain,  some 
lake,  some  river,  some  street,  or  even  (rather  than 
nothing  at  all)  some  alley,  shall  be  labelled  with 
our  name,  and  thus  bear  it  down  the  ages ;  and 
from  this  very  human  craving  our  zoologists  are 
not  wholly  exempt;  but  I  have  been  taught  to 
doubt  that  of  the  mountain  sheep,  the  Ovis  cana- 


The  Mountain  Sheep  181 

densis  l  (or  Ovis  cervina,  as  some  books  still  have 
it),  more  than  one  or  two  subdivisions  will  prove, 
in  the  end,  valid  enlargements  of  our  knowledge. 
These  are  Ovis  dalli?  a  white  variety  in  central 
Alaska,  north  of  latitude  60°,  and  (perhaps)  Ovis 
stoneif  a  dark  variety  with  horns  more  slender 
and  outward  curving,  in  Alaska  and  North  British 
Columbia.  The  four  other  would-be  subspecies 
have  been  set  down  as  Ovis  canadensis  audu- 
boni,  Ovis  nelsoni?  Ovis  mexicana?  and  Ovis 

1  Dark  brown,  shading  to  tan  and  ecru,  tinged  with  grayish  blue ; 
large,  heavy  boned ;  massive  horns  curved  close  to  head,  well  flat- 
tened, deeply  corrugated  on  upper  rim,  usually  battered  at  the  points 
in  the  older  rams.     Range  the  Rocky  Mountains  north  from  the 
Colorado  River  to  the  head  waters  of  the   Peace  River,  British 
Columbia.     Range  in  upper  edge  of  timber  line. 

2  White.     Summer  coat  of  a  rusty  hue.     Not  so  large  as  Cana- 
densis.    Horns  white,  curved  well  away  from  head ;  not  so  deeply 
corrugated,  less  massive  than  Canadensis.    All  of  Rocky  Mountains 
north  of  60°  N.  L.,  and  Alaskan  Mountains  in  Western  Alaska  Range, 
above  timber  line. 

8  The  darkest  of  all  the  sheep,  shading  from  light  to  very  dark 
gray  tinged  with  brown.  Horns  long  and  graceful  but  slender, 
spreading  farther  from  the  head  than  those  of  any  species.  Range 
the  Rocky  Mountains  between  55°  and  60°  N.  and  in  the  Cassiar, 
Campbell,  and  Simson  mountains  farther  west  and  north  to  62°  N. 

4  Light  brown  to  ecru  tinged  with  drab.  Horns  similar  to  Cana- 
densis. Range  the  semi-desert  country  in  Southern  states  from 
Texas  to  California. 

6  Darker  than  Nelsoni,  but  not  so  dark  as  Canadensis.  Size 
large.  Horns  broad  and  massive ;  molar  teeth  larger  than  in  any 
known  American  sheep ;  tail  vertebra  long.  Range  Chihuahua 
Mountains  in  Northern  and  Western  Mexico. 


1 82  Tbe  Mountain  Sbeep 

fanning     These  four  may  be  considered  not  so 
much  varieties  of  sheep  as  works  of  fiction. 

As  to  the  general  name,  all  are  agreed  to  let 
him  pass  conveniently  as  a  sheep,  —  conveniently, 
but  with  a  number  of  reserves  which  science  can 
state.  He  has,  for  instance,  some  things  in  com- 
mon with  the  goat  family.  Indeed,  science  can, 
in  final  analysis,  hardly  separate  sheep  from  goat. 
Relatives  in  this  continent  our  Ovis  possesses 
absolutely  none;  but  there  are  cousins  to  be 
found  in  Kamchatka,  Tibet,  and  India;  and 
I  have  been  told  by  one  hunter  that  the  moufflon 
of  Corsica  resembles  him  not  a  little.  I've  for- 
gotten to  mention  that  he  hasn't  any  tail  to 
speak  of.  So  now  at  length,  you,  who  have 
never  looked  upon  him,  see  him,  if  you  can, 
through  my  unscientific  vision,  as  I  rubbed  his 
nose  at  Livingston,  Montana:  tall  almost  as  a 
deer,  shaped  almost  like  a  heavy  black-tail  deer, 
close  haired,  grayish,  tailless,  with  unexpected 
ram's  horns  curving  round  his  furry  ears  and 
forward,  with  eyes  dark  yellow  and  grave,  and 
with  the  look  of  a  great  gentleman  in  every  line 

1  White  and  gray.  In  size  about  that  of  the  Dalli  and  Stonei. 
Horns  white  ;  curved  closer  to  head  than  Dalli  and  Stonei.  Range 
Upper  Yukon  River.  Range  more  in  the  timber  than  Stonei  or 
Dalli ;  habits  very  much  those  of  Canadensis. 


The  Mountain  Sheep  183 

of  him.  The  tame  sheep  is  hopelessly  bourgeois ; 
but  this  mountain  aristocrat,  this  frequenter 
of  clean  snow  and  steep  rocks  and  silence,  has, 
even  beyond  the  bull  elk,  that  same  secure,  un- 
conscious air  of  being  not  only  well  bred,  but 
high  bred,  not  only  game  but  fine  game,  which 
we  still  in  the  twentieth  century  meet  sometimes 
among  men  and  women.  What  gives  distinc- 
tion ?  Who  can  say  ?  It  is  to  be  found  among 
chickens  and  fish.  What  preserves  it  we  know ; 
and  our  laws  will  in  the  end  extirpate  it.  Many 
people  already  fail  to  recognize  it,  either  in  life 
or  in  books.  But  nature  scorns  universal  suf- 
frage ;  and  when  our  houses  have  ceased  to  con- 
tain gentlefolk,  we  shall  still  be  able  to  find  them 
in  the  zoological  gardens. 

During  my  interview  with  the  sheep,  freight 
trains  had  passed  once  or  twice  without  disturb- 
ing him  or  attracting  his  notice ;  but  as  I  walked 
away  and  left  him  grazing,  there  came  by  a 
switching-engine  that  made  a  great  noise.  This 
didn't  frighten  him,  but  set  him  in  a  rage.  Once 
again  he  leaped  into  the  air  waving  his  fore  legs 
and  eccentrically  descended  to  charge  with  fury 
his  telegraph  pole.  Yes,  he  was  "  tyme,"  if  by 
that  word  one  is  to  understand  that  he  was  shy 


184  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

neither  of  men  nor  locomotives  ;  but  just  here 
there  is  a  hole  in  our  dictionary.  Do  you 
imagine  that  five  years  of  captivity  are  going  to 
tame  the  blood  and  the  nerves  of  a  creature  that 
came  over  the  Aleutian  bridge  from  Asia  during 
the  Pleistocene,  and  has  been  running  wild  in  the 
mountains  until  1887  ?  He  was  "  tame  "  enough 
to  pay  you  no  attention  —  until  he  wanted  to  kill 
you ;  and  this  was  what  he  did  want  when  I  saw 
him  on  the  first  day  of  the  following  December. 
Then  was  his  rutting  time ;  he  was  ready  to 
attack  and  destroy  with  his  powerful  horns  any- 
thing in  Livingston ;  and  so  it  was  in  a  stable 
that  I  found  the  poor  fellow,  took  a  peep  through 
the  quarter-opened  door,  where  his  owner  had 
shut  him  and  tied  him  in  the  dark,  away  from 
his  natural  rights  of  love  and  war.  I  noted  his 
winter  coat  of  maltese,  I  heard  his  ominous 
breathing,  I  saw  the  wild  dangerous  lustre  in 
his  rolling  eye;  and  that  was  my  farewell  to 
the  captive. 

So  good  a  chance  to  study  a  live  ram  I  have 
never  had  again.  Upon  the  other  occasions  when 
I  have  been  able  to  approach  them  at  all,  study 
has  not  been  my  object,  and  the  distance  between 
us  has  been  greater ;  but  on  one  happy  later  day, 


The  Mountain  Sheep  185 

I  watched  a  ewe  with  her  lamb  for  the  good  part 
of  a  morning. 

In  the  summer  of  1885,  as  I  have  said,  the 
mountain  sheep  had  not  yet  forsaken  quite  acces- 
sible regions  in  Wyoming ;  and  very  likely  he  still 
came  down  low  in  most  of  his  old  haunts.  The 
small  band  which  I  saw  was  not  many  miles  from 
one  of  the  largest  ranches  in  that  country,  and 
the  creatures  stood  in  full  sight  of  a  travelled 
road,  —  not  at  that  time  a  stage-road,  but  one  that 
might  be  daily  frequented  by  people  riding  or 
people  driving  on  their  way  north  from  Medi- 
cine Bow  into  the  immense  cattle  country  of  the 
Platte  and  of  the  Powder  River  still  farther 
beyond,  all  the  way  to  the  Bighorn  Mountains. 
Those  very  mountains  that  bear  the  sheep's 
name  and  were  once  so  full  of  sheep  as  well  as 
of  every  other  Rocky  Mountain  big  game  are 
now  sacked  and  empty.  Hidden  here  and  there, 
some  may  exist  yet,  but  as  fugitives  in  a  sanctu- 
ary, not  as  free  denizens  of  the  wild.  I  saw  three 
years  bring  this  change  which  thirty  years  had 
not  brought;  and  in  1888  you  would  have 
looked  in  vain,  I  think,  for  sheep  on  the  road 
from  Medicine  Bow  to  Fetterman.  I  found 
them  that  year  at  no  such  stone's  throw  from 


1 86  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

the  easy  levels  of  the  earth,  but  up  in  the  air  a 
great  distance. 

The  Washakie  Needle,  for  steepness,  is  truly  a 
heartrending  country,  and  that  is  why  the  sheep 
are  there.  In  it  rise  Owl  Creek,  Grey  Bull,  and 
certain  other  waters  tributary  to  the  Bighorn ; 
and  I  have  never  gone  with  pack-horses  in  a 
worse  place.  A  worse  place,  in  fact,  I  have  never 
seen ;  though  they  tell  me  that  where  Green 
River  heads  on  the  Continental  Divide  (in  plain 
sight  from  the  Washakie  Needle  across  the  inter- 
vening Wind  River  country)  you  can,  if  you  so 
desire,  enmesh  yourself,  lose  yourself  among 
cleavages  and  canons  that  slice  and  slit  the 
mountains  to  a  shredded  labyrinth.  From  the 
edge  of  that  rocky  web  I  stepped  back,  discour- 
aged, a  year  later;  and  for  vertical  effects  the 
Washakie  Needle  remains,  as  they  say,  "good 
enough "  for  me.  We  struggled  to  it  through 
a  land  of  jumping-off  places,  a  high,  bald,  bris- 
tling clot  of  mountains  that,  just  beyond  the 
southeast  corner  of  the  Yellowstone  Park,  come 
from  several  directions  to  meet  and  tie  themselves 
into  this  rich  tangle  of  peaks,  ledges,  and  descents. 
You  really  never  did  see  such  a  place !  and  my 
memory  of  it  is  made  lurid  by  an  adventure  with 


UNDER  A   HOT  SKY—  (Ovis  nelsoni) 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  189 

a  thunder-storm  which  cannot  be  chronicled  here 
because  it  happened  on  one  of  the  days  when  we 
found  elk,  but  most  lamentably  missed  our  sheep. 
Missing  a  sheep,  let  me  say,  is  of  all  missing  the 
most  thorough  that  I  know. 

Encouragement,  false  encouragement,  had  come 
to  us  after  our  very  first  night  in  camp  by  the 
Washakie  Needle.  The  next  night  we  had  wild 
mutton  for  supper.  That  initial  day,  Wednesday, 
August  twenty-ninth,  brought  us  this  sweet  luck, 
sweet  not  alone  in  its  promise  of  more  (for  the 
country  was  evidently  full  of  sheep),  but  almost 
equally  because  of  late,  during  our  perilous  jour- 
ney, we  had  come  down  to  bacon.  Now,  to  be  a 
hunting  party,  to  be  in  the  Shoshone  Mountains 
in  August,  1888,  and  to  be  eating  bacon,  was  to  be 
humiliated  ;  only  our  hard  travelling  that  allowed 
no  attending  to  other  business  could  excuse  such 
a  bill  of  fare ;  hence  did  our  pride  and  our  stom- 
achs hail  this  wild  mutton.  There  was  not  much 
of  him  to  hail :  he  was  a  young  ram ;  and  be- 
tween six  of  us,  after  bacon  .  .  .  need  I  say 
more? 

It  had  been  my  intention,  until  this  very  para- 
graph, to  skip  what  happened  next  day.  But  I 
am  growing  confidential ;  these  shall  be  the  con- 


The  Mountain  Sheep 

fessions  of  a  bad  shot.  I  have  read  in  books  and 
in  periodicals  so  many  pages  where  none  but 
good  shots  were  ever  fired ;  I  have  listened  — 
merciful  heaven  !  —  to  the  tales  of  my  sportsman 
friends ;  and,  reader,  unless  you  are  not  at  all  like 
me,  you  have  read  such  pages  too,  have  listened 
to  such  stories  too,  and  you  have  found  a  monot- 
ony creep  over  these  triumphs  of  other  people, 
— the  hair's-breadth  climb,  the  noiseless  approach, 
the  long-range  shot,  one  hundred  yards,  two  hun- 
dred, five  hundred,  with  sights  not  adjusted  but 
elevation  merely  guessed  at,  and  the  inevitably 
unerring  result;  and  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
asphyxiating  skill,  you  have  sometimes  longed  for 
one  pure,  fresh  breath  of  failure  —  have  you  not  ? 
Well,  at  all  events  you  shall  read  of  mine ;  and, 
besides  variety,  there  is  a  second  good  reason  for 
this ;  you  could  not  better  learn  the  ways  of  the 
mountain  sheep,  which,  so  far  as  I  know  them,  I 
am  attempting  to  tell  you. 

Four  of  us  were  so  foolish  as  to  set  out  together 
upon  this  evil  morning ;  two  parties,  that  is,  of 
the  guide  and  the  guided.  There  is  never  any 
gain  in  doing  this,  and  almost  always  loss.  The 
attention  which  you  should  be  giving  to  your 
business  is  divided  by  conversation,  or  by  waiting 


The  Mountain  Sheep  191 

for  some  member  of  the  party  who  has  fallen  be- 
hind ;  and  no  matter  how  silent  you  keep  your- 
selves, four  people  are  sure  at  some  wrong 
moment  to  prove  conspicuous;  better  hunt  alone, 
unless  circumstances  make  it  wise  that  there 
should  be  two  of  you  —  steep  country  does  make 
this  wise  —  but  assuredly  never  go  after  game  in 
fours,  as  we  two  white  men  and  two  Indians  went 
now.  We  labored  and  we  labored  and  we  finally 
were  upon  the  top  instead  of  at  the  bottom  of 
something.  It  was  no  more  than  a  ridge,  not 
high,  that  everywhere  dropped  off  into  our  own 
valley  or  the  next  one ;  but  two  sweating  hours 
had  gone  in  getting  merely  here,  and  here  our 
eight  eyes  discerned  sheep,  quite  a  band  of  them. 
Not,  however,  before  the  sheep  had  discerned  us 
four  wily  hunters.  We  did  not  know  this  then, 
because  they  stayed  still  where  they  seemed  to  be 
grazing.  It  was  a  great  way  off  in  a  straight  line 
through  the  air,  for  the  sheep  were  small  dots 
upon  the  mountain;  and  there  was  no  straight 
line  for  us  to  reach  them  by.  We  labored  and  we 
labored  down  to  a  new  bottom  and  upward  on  a 
new  slope,  and  made  a  most  elaborate  "sneak," 
crouching,  and  stopping,  and  generally  manoeu- 
vring among  stones,  gravel,  and  harsh  tufts  of 


192  Tbe  Mountain  Sbeep 

growth;  so  did  we  come  with  splendid  caution 
upon  where  the  sheep  had  been,  and,  lifting  our 
heads,  beheld  the  vacuum  that  they  had  left,  and 
themselves  contemplating  us  from  the  extreme 
top  of  the  mountain.  I  am  sure  that  you  know 
how  it  feels  to  have  your  foot  step  into  space  at 
what  you  thought  was  the  bottom  of  the  staircase. 
There  is  a  gasp  of  very  particular  sensation  con- 
nected with  this,  and  that  is  what  I  had  now, 
followed  at  once  by  the  no  less  distasteful  retro- 
spect of  myself  with  my  half-cocked  rifle,  crawl- 
ing carefully  for  yards  upon  my  belly,  while  the 
sheep  watched  me  doing  it.  There  they  were  on 
the  top  of  this  new  mountain,  away  far  above  us, 
and  we  four  hunters  proceeded  to  go  on  wrong, 
as  we  had  begun.  I  have  forgotten  to  mention 
that,  among  our  other  follies,  we  had  brought 
horses.  Never  do  such  a  thing  !  If  you  are  not 
in  training  good  enough  to  hunt  mountain  sheep 
on  your  own  legs,  wait  and  climb  about  for  a  few 
days  until  you  have  got  your  breath.  What  my 
horse  did  for  me  on  this  precious  day  was  this : 
our  hills  were  too  steep  for  him  to  carry  me  up, 
so  I  led  him ;  they  were  too  steep  for  him  to  carry 
me  down,  so  I  led  him  ;  and  betweenwhiles,  when 
I  was  stalking  sheep,  I  naturally  had  to  leave  him 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  193 

behind,  and  naturally  had  to  go  back  for  him 
when  the  stalk  was  over.  You  will  have  by  this 
time  but  a  middling  opinion  of  my  common 
sense ;  but  please  bear  in  mind  that  Shoshone 
Indians  invariably  hunt  with  horses,  and  that  in 
those  days  I  was  still  too  much  one  of  the  "  guided  " 
to  be  equal  to  dictating  to  any  Indian  what  trail 
we  should  go,  and  in  what  manner  we  should  hunt. 
This  entire  hunt  of  1888,  from  the  distant  Tetons 
and  the  waters  of  Snake  River  over  to  the  Wa- 
shakie  Needle  and  Owl  Creek,  is  a  tale  of  struggle 
between  ourselves  and  our  red-skinned  guides ; 
we  were  beginning  to  know  the  mountains,  to 
crave  exploration,  to  try  the  unbeaten  path ;  and 
for  an  Indian  (though  you  would  never  suspect  it 
until  you  suffered  from  it)  the  ^beaten  path  is 
the  one  that  he  never  wishes  to  try  and  will  do 
all  things  to  escape  —  even  to  deserting  you  and 
going  home. 

We  hunters  now  set  our  legs  to  new  laboring, 
and  presently  were  again  weltering  in  sweat,  and 
could  look  down  into  a  third  valley  similar  to  the 
two  we  had  so  painfully  quitted.  Down  at  the 
bottom  of  this  new  gash  in  the  hills  went  a  little 
stream  like  all  the  others,  and  beyond  bristled 
interminably  the  knife-like  intersections  of  the 


194  The  Mountain  Sheep 

mountains.  We  had  placed  our  sheep  behind  a 
little  rise  along  the  summit,  and  between  this  and 
ourselves  some  three  hundred  yards  still  inter- 
vened. We  were,  of  course,  much  above  where 
any  trees  grew,  and  the  ground  was  of  that  stony 
sort  with  short  growth  and  no  great  rocks  immedi- 
ately near ;  a  high,  lumpy  pasture  of  mounds  and 
hollows,  wet  with  snows  but  lately  melted,  hailed 
upon  often,  rained  on  but  seldom.  Lower  down, 
this  pasture  country  (which  made  the  top  of  all 
but  the  highest  and  severest  mountains)  fell  away 
in  descents  of  gravel  and  sheer  plunges  of  rock. 
To  get  closer  to  our  sheep  we  now  discovered  we 
must  go  down  some  of  this  hill  we  had  just  come 
up ;  they  were  on  the  watch,  but  were  fortunately 
watching  the  wrong  place,  and  we  all  sat  down 
in  happy  pride  for  a  consultation.  The  other 
side  of  the  hill  had  turned  out  suddenly  to  be  a 
precipice,  a  regular  jumping-off  one,  that  went 
a  long  way  and  ended  in  a  crumble  of  shifting 
stones,  and  then  took  a  jump  or  two  more  and  so 
reached  the  water  at  the  distant  bottom.  This 
side  was  our  only  possible  course,  and  we  took 
another  look  at  the  sheep.  They  had  given  up 
watching,  and  in  joy  we  started  for  them  quickly. 
We  had  so  skilfully  chosen  the  ground  for  our 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  195 

approach  that  we  were  screened  by  a  succession 
of  little  rises  and  hollows  which  lay  between  us 
and  the  sheep.  This  time,  this  time,  there 
was  to  be  no  crawling  up  to  find  a  vacuum,  no 
raising  your  head  to  discover  the  departed  sheep 
taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  you !  What  the 
hearts  of  the  other  hunters  did,  I  don't  know, 
but  my  heart  thumped  with  vindictive  elation 
as  we  sped  crouching  among  the  little  inter- 
vening hollows,  perfectly  hidden  from  the  sheep 
and  drawing  close  to  them  at  last.  Only  one 
more  rise  and  hollow  lay  between  us  and  where 
they  were  pasturing;  and  over  that  rise  we 
hastened  straight  into  the  laps  of  some  twenty 
sheep  we  had  known  nothing  about ;  they  were 
all  lying  down.  Neither  had  they  known  any- 
thing about  us ;  the  surprise  was  mutual.  All 
round  me  I  saw  them  rise,  as  it  were,  like  one 
man  and  take  to  diving  over  the  precipice.  Be- 
wilderment closed  over  me  like  a  flood ;  all  my 
senses  melted  into  one  blurred  pie  of  perception 
in  which  I  was  aware  only  of  hind  legs  and  hop- 
ping. Frightful  language  was  pouring  from  me, 
but  I  didn't  hear  what  it  was ;  all  was  a  swirl  and 
scatter  of  men  and  sheep.  Not  one  of  us  hunters 
was  ready  with  his  gun  or  his  intelligence.  We 


196  The  Mountain  Sheep 

indiscriminately  stampeded  to  the  edge,  and  there 
went  the  sheep,  hustling  down  over  the  stones, 
sliding,  springing,  and  dissolving  away.  And 
now,  suddenly,  when  it  was  of  no  use  at  all,  we 
remembered  that  we  carried  rifles,  and  like  a 
chorus  in  a  comic  opera  we  stood  on  the  brow  of 
the  mountain,  concertedly  working  the  levers, 
firing  our  Winchesters  into  space. 

It's  all  fifteen  years  ago ;  yet  as  I  read  over  my 
relentless  camp-diary,  I  blush  in  spite  of  laughter ; 
it's  hot  work  staring  truth  in  the  face !  And  now 
comes  the  last  feeble  pop  of  the  ridiculous.  We 
turned  our  heads,  and  beheld  the  sheep  we  had 
come  for,  the  sheep  we  had  climbed  two  moun- 
tains for,  the  sheep  we  had  at  length  got  within 
a  hundred  yards  of,  just  disappearing  over  a  final 
ridge  so  far  away  that  there  remained  to  them  no 
color,  and  only  one  dimension  —  length.  They 
looked  like  a  handful  of  toothpicks.  They  natu- 
rally had  not  been  idle  while  we  were  so  busy ; 
while  we  were  losing  our  heads,  they  had  kept 
theirs ;  and  during  that  brief  fusillade  of  ours  — 
the  whole  preposterous  affair  could  not  have  filled 
more  than  three  minutes  —  they  had  put  such  a 
stretch  of  ups  and  downs  between  us,  that  going 
after  them  any  more  was  not  to  be  thought  of. 


The  Mountain  Sheep  197 

We  stood  at  the  empty  top  of  the  mountain 
with  our  ruined  day.  There  was  not  a  live  ani- 
mal in  sight  anywhere.  Those  that  jumped  into 
the  valley  were  lost  among  the  pines,  and  warned 
about  us  beyond  retrieve.  We  had  banged  away 
at  such  a  rate  up  here  that  a  wide  circle  of  sheep 
must  be  apprised  of  our  neighborhood.  Why  had 
we  done  it  ?  For  just  the  same  reason  that  a  num- 
ber of  brave  persons  ran  away  suddenly  at  Bull 
Run  as  if  perdition  were  at  their  heels.  Surprise, 
I  take  it,  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  most  unaccount- 
able acts  of  men.  And  if  you  wonder  why  our 
two  Indians  were  surprised,  I  can  only  answer 
with  a  theory  of  mine  that  Indians  who  hunt  on 
horseback  have  small  knowledge  of  mountain 
sheep.  Antelope,  deer,  white-tail  and  black,  and 
even  elk,  can  be,  and  are  constantly  thus  hunted 
by  the  Indians ;  but  when  it  comes  to  climbing 
where  the  horses  cannot  go,  I  suspect  that  his 
rider  seldom  goes  either.  Looking  back,  I  see 
now  that  this  whole  excursion  was  conducted 
ignorantly,  and  that  our  guides  (both  of  them 
excellent  hunters  of  other  game)  neglected  the 
very  first  principle  here,  namely,  to  get  to  the 
top  of  the  mountains  and  hunt  down. 

We  returned  our  long  way  to  camp,  and  the 


198  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

elk  that  one  of  us  shot  at  sundown  made  no 
atonement  for  our  melancholy  farce.  My  diary 
concludes,  "So  ended  Thursday,  August  30,  a 
most  instructive  day,  full  of  weather,  wind,  and 
experience." 

By  breakfast  we  were  bearing  up  a  little,  mak- 
ing much  of  the  fact  that,  after  all,  the  sheep  we 
had  seen  were  only  ewes  and  lambs.  This  would 
not  have  caused  us  to  spare  them,  to  be  sure ;  we 
were  out  of  fresh  meat  when  we  saw  them ;  and 
though  the  head  and  horns  of  a  ewe  do  not  make 
a  noble  trophy  for  the  sportsman,  they  represent 
hard  work,  and  are  decidedly  better  than  nothing 
at  all  when  you  are  a  beginner,  and  hungry. 

We  took  another  course,  making  for  moun- 
tains on  the  side  of  the  valley  opposite  from 
yesterday's  route.  My  Indian  was  not  hopeful. 
"  Too  much  shoot,"  he  remarked.  "  Run  away." 
But  presently  we  passed  very  fresh  tracks,  and 
began  one  of  those  ascents  where  you  are  continu- 
ally sure  that  the  next  top  is  the  real  top.  We 
had  come  looking  for  the  sheep  at  a  season  when 
he  is  living  mostly  upon  the  roof  of  his  house. 
He,  with  the  goat,  inhabits,  it  may  be  fairly 
said,  the  tallest  mansion  of  all  our  ruminants ; 
indeed,  you  may  put  the  whole  case  thus:  — 


The  Mountain  Sheep  199 

Our  Rocky  Mountains  are  a  four-story  build- 
ing. The  bottom  is  the  sage-brush  and  cotton- 
wood,  the  second  is  pines  and  quaking-asp,  the 
third  is  willow  bushes,  wet  meadows,  and  mo- 
raines, and  the  fourth  is  bald  rocks  and  snow- 
fields.  The  house  begins  about  five  thousand 
feet  high,  and  runs  to  fourteen  thousand.  We 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  prairie-dog  and 
others  that  live  in  the  cellar;  it  is  the  antelope 
to  which  the  first  floor  belongs,  and  also  the 
white-tail  deer,  which,  however,  gets  up  a  little  into 
the  second.  The  elk,  the  black-tail,  and  the  mule- 
deer  possess  second  and  third  stories  in  common, 
while  the  fourth  is  the  exclusive  territory  of  the 
sheep  and  the  goat.  But  here  is  the  difference ; 
these  latter  (the  sheep,  certainly)  descend  to  all 
the  other  stories  if  the  season  drives  or  the  humor 
suits  them ;  they  go  from  roof  to  ground,  while 
the  other  animals  seldom,  save  when  hunted,  are 
to  be  met  above  or  below  their  assigned  levels. 
I  have  met  a  sheep  on  Wind  River  in  July  where 
the  sage-brush  was  growing,  and  another  on  a 
wooded  foot-hill  just  above  Jackson's  Lake. 

This  day  we  went  to  the  fourth  story  by  a 
staircase  dear  to  the  heart  of  a  sheep.  I  mounted 
through  an  uncanny  domain  where  all  about  me 


200  Tbe  Mountain  Sheep 

stood  little  pillars  of  round  stones  baked  together 
in  mud,  and  planted  on  end,  each  supporting  a 
single  rock  of  another  color  set  upon  them  trans- 
versely; shafts  of  necromancy  they  would  have 
seemed  in  the  age  of  witches,  altars  which  might 
flame  by  night  while  some  kind  of  small,  naked 
beings  with  teeth  held  rites  over  the  traveller's 
crushed  body,  for  from  one's  feet  here  the  little 
stones  rolled  down  to  right  and  left  into  depths 
invisible.  You  who  have  not  seen  cannot  imag- 
ine how  here  and  there  in  the  Rocky  Mountains 
these  masonries  of  nature  suggest  the  work  not 
of  men  but  demons.  Silence  drew  around  me  as 
I  passed  upward  through  the  weird  dwarf  Stone- 
henge;  and  on  top  we  found  ourselves  looking 
down  the  other  side  at  a  gray  stump  which  pres- 
ently moved.  The  glasses  showed  us  the  stump's 
legs  and  fine  curling  horns ;  and  our  hearts, 
which  had  been  for  some  time  heavy  at  the  poor 
luck,  grew  light.  Only,  how  to  get  at  him  ? 

We  had  almost  given  up  the  game  when  we 
spied  the  ram;  we  had  come  so  far  for  so  long; 
and  we  now  had  been  sitting  upon  —  almost 
straddling  —  this  ultimate  ridge,  with  the  Indian 
every  little  while  lugubriously  repeating,  "  No 
sheep."  The  ram  had  not  a  suspicion  of  us,  and 


SURPRISED    (White  Sheep  —  Ovis  dalli) 


The  Mountain  Sheep  203 

presently  lay  down  in  the  sun  near  the  bottom 
of  a  rocky  gulch.  The  whole  of  the  gulch 
we  could  not  see,  not  even  when  we  had  crawled 
down  a  side  of  the  mountain,  an  endless  surface 
of  rolling  stones  with  scanty  patches  of  grass 
and  an  occasional  steadfast  rock.  This  descent 
seemed  the  most  taxing  effort  yet.  It  was  nearly 
always  (and  sometimes  quite)  impossible  to  stir  a 
foot  or  a  hand,  or  shift  any  fraction  of  my  weight, 
without  starting  a  rippling  stream  of  stones  that 
chuckled  and  bounced  and  gathered  noise  as 
they  flowed  downward,  and  finally  sprang  into  a 
rocky  chasm  which  gave  out  hollow  roars.  I 
often  felt  certain  these  sounds  must  reach  the 
ram ;  but  they  were  only  next  door  to  him,  so  to 
speak,  and  separated  by  the  tilted  wall  of  moun- 
tain which  divided  his  gulch  from  the  one  down 
the  side  of  which  I  was  so  very  gradually  making 
my  way.  I  don't  believe  the  whole  distance  could 
have  been  more  than  three  hundred  yards ;  yet  I 
was  nearly  thirty  minutes  accomplishing  it  with 
the  help  of  the  grass  tufts  and  every  other  fixture 
that  came  within  available  reach  in  this  sliding 
sea  of  stones.  I  at  length  arrived  where  I  wanted 
to  be,  and  a  truly  unkind  thing  happened :  I  was 
taken  with  "buck-fever"!  It  didn't  prevent  my 


204  The  Mountain  Sheep 

finally  getting  a  shot  in;  but  here  is  the  whole 
adventure. 

I  lifted  myself  and  looked  over  the  edge  into 
the  next  gulch.  There  was  the  ram,  who  saw  me 
at  the  same  moment,  and  rose.  I  probably  missed 
him ;  for  after  my  shot  he  continued  to  walk 
toward  me  in  a  leisurely  manner,  not  fifty  yards 
distant,  I  should  think,  down  in  his  gulch. 
Whether  I  fired  at  him  again  or  not,  I  cant  re- 
member,—  couldn't  remember  that  same  evening 
when  I  tried  to  put  the  whole  event  faithfully 
down  in  my  diary!  Buck-fever  is  not  the  only 
reason  for  this  uncertainty ;  for  now,  from  behind 
every  rock  below  me,  horns  rose  up  like  tricks 
out  of  a  trap-door,  apparitions  of  horns  every- 
where, an  invasion  of  mountain  sheep.  They 
came  straight  up  to  me,  —  this  was  the  most  up- 
setting part  of  it  all.  Not  one  did  I  see  running 
down  the  gulch ;  they  hadn't  made  me  out,  or 
made  anything  out,  save  that  some  noise  had 
disturbed  them.  They  came  up  and  up  around 
me,  passing  me,  steadily  coming  and  going  on 
over  the  mountain  while  my  buck-fever  raged. 
"  I  saw  their  big  grave  eyes  and  the  different 
shades  of  their  hair,  and  noticed  their  hoofs 
moving  —  but  whether  they  came  by  fast  or  slow, 


The  Mountain  Sheep  205 

or  what  number  there  were,  I  cannot  remember 
at  all."  Such  are  the  actual  words  I  wrote  not 
more  than  six  hours  later,  and  I  am  glad  to 
possess  this  searching  record  of  that  day  and  of 
my  bygone  state  of  mind;  for  with  the  best 
honesty  in  the  world  no  man  can  from  memory 
alone  rebuild  the  minute  edifice  of  truth  that  has 
been  covered  by  the  heap  of  fifteen  gathering 
years.  So  I  stood,  crazy  and  inefficient,  upon  the 
mountains,  and  after  a  little  no  more  sheep  were 
there.  A  speck  of  conscious  action  remained 
with  me,  namely,  that  during  the  passage  of  the 
sheep  I  had  held  myself  enough  in  control  to  get 
"  a  bead  "  on  the  broadside  of  two  successively ; 
I  remembered  following  them  along  for  a  moment 
with  my  rifle  before  pulling  the  trigger.  But 
these  I  never  saw  again,  and  know  not  where  I 
hit  them  —  if  hit  them  I  did.  One  trophy  re- 
mains to  show  for  this  day.  A  ram  that  had 
been  shot  at  some  moment  of  the  invasion  re- 
turned to  the  gulch  where  I  was,  and  stood  at  a 
short  distance  above  me ;  and  then  I  succeeded 
in  placing  one  shot  where  I  meant  it  to  go. 

The  visions  of  this  band,  as  it  scattered  in  twos 
and  threes  after  crossing  my  gulch,  would  incline 
me  to  guess  there  must  have  been  from  fifteen  to 


206  The  Mountain  Sheep 

twenty  of  them  —  all  rams.  Their  sex  is  quite 
certain ;  the  most  intense  impression  that  was 
given  to  my  unstrung  perceptions  is  of  their 
huge  curving  horns  and  their  solemn  eyes.  It  is 
hateful  to  think  that  some  of  them  were  hurt  and 
so  went  off  to  limp,  or  to  die ;  and  I  am  thankful 
to  have  but  very  few  memories  of  wanton  shoot- 
ing, and  some  consoling  ones  of  temptations 
resisted.  These  rams  mostly  escaped  the  indis- 
criminate blasts  from  my  rifle ;  of  this  I  am  sure. 
I  saw  them,  high  and  low,  near  and  far,  scuttling 
into  safety  over  the  steep  ridges,  or  down  into 
unseen  canons;  and  upon  presently  searching 
the  vicinity,  we  found  but  one  trace  of  blood.  As 
for  the  buck-fever,  it  was  the  first  seizure  that  I 
ever  had,  and  it  has  proved  the  last.  Why  it 
should  have  held  off  in  previous  years  and  come 
down  upon  me  in  1888,  who  shall  say?  You 
will  wonder  as  much  as  I  do  that  a  silver-tip 
bear  did  not  give  me  the  slightest  touch  of  it 
in  July,  1887.  A  bear  is  more  important  game 
than  a  sheep ;  this  grizzly  was  the  first  I  had 
ever  seen,  and  I  was  less  experienced.  Excita- 
bility is  a  matter  of  temperament  that  varies  in- 
finitely; but  this  scarcely  explains  why,  with  a 
bear  to  shoot,  no  cucumber  could  have  been 


Tbe  Mountain  Sheep  207 

cooler  than  I  was  one  year,  and  why  the  next, 
with  these  rams,  I  seem  to  have  been  a  useless 
imbecile.  The  unexpected  apparition  of  so  many 
animals  does  not  account  for  it,  because  when  I 
raised  myself  to  look  over  the  ridge  before  my 
first  shot  that  brought  them  into  sight,  I  was 
shaking  thoroughly. 

These  proceedings  did  not,  at  any  rate,  impair 
appetite.  With  the  flavor  of  elk,  deer,  antelope, 
bear,  and  even  porcupine,  we  were  familiar;  but 
wild  mutton  was  still  a  great  novelty,  and  we 
found  it  the  most  palatable  of  all.  I  say  "  we 
found  it "  and  not  "  it  was,"  because  I  have  found 
a  lump  of  dough  sponged  round  a  tin  plate  full 
of  bacon  grease  so  very  delicious !  The  romance 
of  wild  game  so  mixes  with  its  taste  that  we 
carve  a  venison  steak  with  unction  and  respect. 
Yet  I  have  come  almost  to  think  that  our  good 
old  friend  roast  beef  is  more  savory  than  any- 
thing we  can  find  in  the  woods.  If  it  is  merely 
the  pleasure  of  the  table  that  you  seek,  take  a 
good  walk  every  day  in  the  park,  or  even  just 
up  and  down  town,  and  the  meats  from  your 
kitchen  (if  your  lot  is  blest  with  a  kitchen)  will 
be  superior  to  all  the  meats  of  camp. 

I  become,  as  I  look  back,  surer  than  ever  that 


208  The  Mountain  Sheep 

our  Indians  knew  not  much  more  than  we  did 
ourselves  about  the  habits  of  the  mountain  sheep, 
and  that  they  did  as  little  reasoning  as  we  did. 
On  the  day  preceding  this,  what  had  been  our 
experience  ?  To  run  into  bands  of  ewes  and 
lambs.  If  the  women  and  children  were  thus 
off  by  themselves  in  the  month  of  August,  it  was 
no  great  jump  to  conclude  that  the  men  must 
be  keeping  each  other  company  somewhere  else. 
When  we  spied  that  ram  down  the  gulch  sun- 
ning himself,  we  should  have  tried  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  he  was  alone.  As  a  matter  of 
natural  history,  the  summer  season  does  find 
the  Ovis  canadensis,  as  well  as  many  other  of 
the  ruminants,  thus  separated  by  sex;  and  the 
chances  are  that  if  you  meet  a  ewe  she  is  not  far 
from  more,  and  that  a  ram  had  better  not  be  pre- 
sumed solitary  until  his  individual  habit  has  been 
so  proved.  You  are  not  likely  to  find  ewes  and 
rams  together  till  the  rutting  season,1  in  Decem- 
ber. I  have  read  in  some  book,  or  books,  that 
the  lambs  are  dropped  in  March,  but  I  think  this 
is  a  somewhat  early  date,  or,  rather,  that  many 

1  The  ram's  horns  cease  growing  at  the  time  of  the  rutting  sea- 
son, and  do  not  begin  again  until  the  spring  brings  nourishing  food. 
This  causes  the  rings  on  the  horns,  it  is  said,  which  indicate  the 
number  of  winters  old  the  sheep  is. 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  209 

come  in  April,  and  that  it  is  scarcely  correct  to 
limit  their  season  to  the  single  month.  The 
lambs,  from  the  time  of  their  birth  on  into  the 
late  fall,  follow  their  careful  mothers  —  receive,  in 
fact,  a  half-year's  bringing  up.  And  I  had,  one 
day  in  September,  1896,  the  singular  good  fortune 
to  watch  a  mamma  with  her  child  for  a  period 
even  longer  than  my  observation  of  the  ram  at 
Livingston. 

The  Tetons  lie  just  south  of  the  Yellowstone 
Park,  and  directly  upon  the  borders  of  Wyoming 
and  Idaho.  Any  recent  map  might  seem  to  prove 
this  geography  inaccurate,  because,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  a  late  extension  of  the  timber  reservation 
reaches  below  these  mountains,  and  most  wisely 
includes  both  them  and  Jackson's  Lake  with  the 
whole  piece  of  country  eastward  to  the  Conti- 
nental Divide.  Of  all  places  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains that  I  know,  it  is  the  most  beautiful ;  and, 
as  it  lies  too  high  for  man  to  build  and  prosper 
in,  its  trees  and  waters  should  be  kept  from  man's 
irresponsible  destruction ;  those  forests  feed  the 
great  river  system  of  the  Columbia  and  Snake. 
But  I  have  been  a  poacher,  according  to  the 
recent  map.  In  1896,  however,  the  line  was 
north  of  me  by  a  few  miles ;  and  the  day  before 


210  The  Mountain  Sheep 

I  saw  the  ewe  and  the  lamb,  I  had  shot  a  ewe. 
It  is,  I  believe,  considered  unsportsmanlike  to  do 
this ;  I  have  never  seen  the  sportsman  yet,  though, 
who  would  not  cheerfully  bring  home  a  ewe  to  an 
empty  larder.  Our  larder  was  empty,  even  of  fish, 
which  had  been  plentiful  until  we  had  climbed  up 
here  among  the  Tetons,  where  the  brooks  ran  too 
small  for  fish. 

My  object  this  second  day  was  to  find,  if  I 
could,  a  ram ;  and  it  proved  one  of  those  occa- 
sions (sadly  rare  in  my  experience)  when,  being 
disappointed  of  one's  wish,  something  actually 
better  descends  from  the  gods,  bringing  consola- 
tion. It  was  a  climb  less  severe  than  those  of 
which  I  have  already  written,  for  our  camp  among 
the  Tetons  was  close  to  the  fourth  story;  less,  I 
should  suppose,  than  a  thousand  feet  above  our 
tent,  the  mountain  grew  bare  of  trees.  Upward 
from  this,  it  was  not  a  long  walk  to  snow. 

When  first  I  saw  the  mother  and  child,  I 
already  had  them  at  a  great  disadvantage ;  they 
were,  to  be  sure,  where  I  had  not  expected  them 
to  be,  but  I  was  where  they  had  not  expected  me 
to  be ;  and  thus  I  became  aware  of  them  a  long 
distance  below  me,  actually  coming  up  to  me  by 
the  trail  I  had  come  myself.  Trail,  "you  must 


The  Mountain  Sheep  in 

understand,  does  not  here  mean  a  path  beaten  by 
men,  or  even  by  game,  but  simply  the  pleasant- 
est  way  of  getting  up  this  part  of  the  mountain. 
The  mother  had  been  taking  her  child  upon  a 
visit  to  the  third  story,  had  been  away  down 
among  the  pine  woods  and  open  places,  where 
brooks  ran  and  grass  grew  with  several  sorts  of 
flowers  and  ripe  berries ;  and  now  she  was  return- 
ing to  the  heights  of  her  own  especial  world. 
Alas  for  my  camera !  it  was  irretrievably  in 
camp.  I  laid  my  useless  rifle  down,  for  from 
me  neither  of  these  lives  should  receive  any 
hurt ;  and  with  the  next  best  thing  to  a  camera 
—  my  field-glasses  —  I  got  ready  for  a  survey  of 
this  family  as  prolonged  and  thorough  as  they 
should  allow.  But  field-glasses  are  a  poor  second 
best  in  such  a  case;  a  few  pictures  of  this  lady 
and  her  offspring  "at  home"  would  have  told 
you  more  than  my  words  have  any  hope  of 
conveying. 

I  never  saw  people  in  less  haste.  From  begin- 
ning to  end  they  treated  the  whole  mountain  as 
you  would  treat  your  library  (dining  room  were, 
perhaps,  nearer  the  mark)  upon  an  idle  morning 
between  regular  meals.  No  well-to-do  matron, 
with  her  day's  housekeeping  finished,  could  have 


212  The  Mountain  Sheep 

looked  out  of  the  window  more  serenely  than 
this  ewe  surveyed  her  neighborhood.  The  two 
had  now  arrived  at  what,  in  their  opinion,  was  a 
suitable  place  for  stopping.  "Their"  opinion  is  not 
correct;  it  was,  I  soon  unmistakably  made  out, 
the  mamma  who  —  far  more  than  the  average 
American  mother  as  American  mothers  go  now 
—  decided  what  was  good  and  proper  for  her 
child.  This  lamb  was  being  brought  up  as  strictly 
as  if  it  were  English.  They  had  just  completed  a 
somewhat  long  and  unrelieved  ascent,  —  so  I  had, 
at  any  rate,  previously  found  it.  This  upper 
region  of  the  mountain  rose  above  the  tree  belt 
in  three  well-marked  terraces  which  were  rimmed 
by  walls  of  rock  extremely  symmetrical.  Each 
terrace  made  a  platform  fairly  level  and  fairly 
wide,  upon  which  one  was  glad  to  linger  for  a 
while  before  ascending  the  slant  to  the  next 
terrace  wall.  I  was  seated  at  the  edge  of  the  top 
terrace,  a  floor  of  stones  and  grass  and  very  thick 
little  spruce  and  juniper  bushes  ;  the  mamma  had 
just  attained  the  terrace  next  below  me,  and  up 
the  wall  after  her  had  climbed  and  scrambled 
the  little  lamb  with  (I  was  diverted  to  notice) 
almost  as  much  difficulty  as  I  had  found  at  that 
spot  myself.  The  mamma  knew  a  good  deal 


THE   SADDLEBACK   SHEEP—  (Oms  fanning 


The  Mountain  Sheep  215 

more  about  climbing  than  the  lamb  and  I 
did. 

There  this  couple  stood  in  full  view  some 
few  hundred  feet  —  about  three  hundred,  I 
should  think  —  below  me ;  and  here  sat  I  at  my 
ease,  like  a  person  looking  over  a  comfortable 
balcony,  observing  them  through  my  glass. 
There  was  a  certain  mirth  in  the  thought  how 
different  would  have  been  the  mamma's  deport- 
ment had  she  become  aware  that  herself,  her 
child,  and  her  privacy  were  all  in  the  presence  of 
a  party  who  was  taking  notes.  But  she,  through- 
out, never  became  aware  of  this,  and  I  sat  the 
witness  of  a  domestic  hour  full  of  discipline, 
encouragement,  and  instruction.  The  glasses 
brought  them  to  a  nearness  not  unlike  peeping 
through  the  keyhole ;  I  could  see  the  color  of 
their  eyes.  The  lady's  expression  could  easily 
have  passed  for  critical.  After  throwing  a  glance 
round  the  terrace,  her  action  to  the  lamb  was 
fairly  similar  to  remarking,  "  Yes,  there  are  no 
improper  persons  here ;  you  may  play  about  if 
you  wish." 

Some  such  thing  happened  between  them, 
for,  after  waiting  for  the  scrambling  lamb  to  come 
up  with  her  on  the  level  and  stand  beside  her, 


2i 6  The  Mountain  Sheep 

she  appeared  to  dismiss  it  from  her  thoughts. 
She  moved  over  the  terrace,  grazing  a  little, 
walking  a  little,  stopping,  enjoying  the  fine  day, 
while  her  good  child  amused  itself  by  itself. 
I  feared  but  one  thing,  — that  the  wind  might  take 
to  blowing  capriciously,  and  give  their  noses 
warning  that  a  heathen  stranger  was  in  the 
neighborhood.  But  the  happy  wind  flowed 
gentle  and  changeless  along  the  heights  of  the 
mountains.  I  have  not  more  enjoyed  anything 
in  the  open  air  than  that  sitting  on  the  terrace 
watching  those  creatures  whose  innocent  blood 
my  hands  were  not  going  to  shed. 

After  a  proper  period  of  relaxation,  the  mother 
judged  it  time  to  go  on.  There  was  nothing 
haphazard  in  her  action ;  of  that  I  am  con- 
vinced. How  she  did  it,  how  she  intimated  to 
the  lamb  that  they  couldn't  stop  here  any  longer, 
I  don't  pretend  to  know.  I  do,  however,  know 
that  it  was  no  mere  wandering  upward  herself, 
confident  the  lamb  would  follow;  because  pres- 
ently (as  I  shall  describe)  she  quite  definitely 
made  the  lamb  stay  behind.  She  now  began 
mounting  the  hill  right  toward  me,  not  fast  but 
steadily,  waiting  now  and  then,  precisely  as  other 
parents  wait,  for  her  toddling  child  to  come  up 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  217 

with  her.  Here  and  there  were  bushes  of  some 
close  stiff  leaf,  that  she  walked  through  easily, 
but  which  were  too  many  for  the  toddling  child. 
The  lamb  would  sometimes  get  into  the  middle 
of  one  of  these  and  find  itself  unable  to  push 
through ;  after  one  or  two  little  efforts,  it  would 
back  out  and  go  round  some  other  way,  and 
then  I  would  see  it  making  haste  to  where  its 
mother  stood  waiting.  Upon  one  of  these 
occasions  the  mother  received  it  with  a  manner 
that  seemed  almost  to  say :  "  Good  gracious, 
at  your  age  I  found  no  trouble  with  a  thing  of 
that  kind ! "  They  drew,  by  degrees,  so  near  me 
that  I  put  away  my  glasses.  There  was  a  time 
when  they  were  not  fifty  feet  below  me  and  I 
could  hear  their  little  steps ;  and  once  the  ewe 
sneezed  in  the  most  natural  manner.  While  I 
was  wondering  what  on  earth  they  would  do 
when  they  found  themselves  stepping  upon  the 
terrace  into  my  lap,  the  ewe  saw  a  way  she  liked 
better.  Had  she  gone  to  my  left  as  I  watched 
her,  and  so  reached  my  level,  the  wind  would 
have  infallibly  betrayed  me;  but  she  turned  the 
other  way  and  went  along  beneath  the  terrace 
wall  to  a  patch  of  the  bushes  high  enough  to 
make  severe  work  for  the  lamb.  While  she  was 


2i8  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

doing  this,  I  hastened  to  a  new  position.  Where 
I  had  been  sitting  she  was  bound  to  see  me  as 
soon  as  she  climbed  twenty  feet  higher,  and  I 
accordingly  sought  a  propitious  cover,  and  found 
it  in  a  clump  of  evergreens.  She  got  to  the  wall 
where  she  could  make  one  leap  of  it.  It  was 
done  in  a  flash,  and  resembled  nothing  that  any 
well-to-do  matron  could  perform  ;  but  once  at  the 
top,  she  was  again  the  complete  matron.  She 
scanned  the  new  ground  critically  and  with  ap- 
parent satisfaction  at  first.  I  stole  the  glasses  to 
my  eyes  and  saw  her  closed  lips  wearing  quite 
the  bland  expression  of  a  lady's  that  I  know 
when  she  has  entered  a  room  to  make  a  call,  and 
finds  the  wall-paper  and  furniture  reflect,  on  the 
whole,  favorably  upon  the  lady  of  the  house. 
Meanwhile,  the  poor  little  lamb  was  vainly 
springing  at  the  wall;  the  jump  was  too  high 
for  it.  Its  front  hoofs  just  grazed  the  edge,  and 
back  it  would  tumble  to  try  again.  Finally  it 
bleated ;  but  the  mother  deemed  this  not  a  mo- 
ment for  indulgence.  She  gave  not  the  slight- 
est attention  to  the  cry  for  assistance.  There 
was  nothing  dangerous  about  the  place,  no  un- 
reasonable hardship  in  getting  the  best  of  the 
wall ;  and  by  her  own  processes,  whether  you 


The  Mountain  Sbeep  219 

term  them  thought  or  instinct,  she  left  her  child 
to  meet  one  of  the  natural  difficulties  of  life,  and 
so  gain  self-reliance. 

Do  you  think  this  fanciful?  That  is  because 
you  have  not  sufficiently  thought  about  such 
things.  The  mamma  did  undoubtedly  not  use 
the  words  "  self-reliance  "  or  "  natural  difficulties 
of  life  " ;  but  if  she  had  not  her  sheep  equivalent 
for  what  these  words  import,  her  species  would 
a  long  while  ago  have  perished  off  the  earth.  The 
mountain  sheep  is  a  master  at  the  art  of  self- 
preservation  ;  its  eye  is  tenfold  keener  than 
man's,  because  it  has  to  be,  and  so  is  its  foot  ten 
or  twenty  fold  more  agile ;  every  sense  is  devel- 
oped to  an  extreme  alertness.  It  measures  foot- 
hold more  justly  than  we  do,  because  it  has  had 
to  flee  from  dangers  that  do  not  beset  us.  That 
the  maternal  instinct  (which  these  mothers  retain 
until  their  young  can  shift  for  themselves)  should 
fail  in  a  matter  so  immediate  as  the  needs  of  its 
young  to  understand  rock  climbing,  is  a  notion 
more  unreasonable  than  that  it  should  be  con- 
stantly attentive  to  this  point.  But  —  better  than 
any  talk  of  mine  —  the  next  step  taken  by  the 
ewe  will  show  how  much  she  was  climbing  this 
mountain  with  an  eye  to  her  offspring. 


220  The  Mountain  Sheep 

The  lamb  had  bleated  and  brought  no  sign 
from  her.  She  continued  standing,  or  moving 
a  few  feet  onward  in  my  direction.  This  means 
that  she  was  coming  up  a  quite  gentle  slant,  and 
that  thirty  yards  more  would  land  her  at  my  ever- 
green bush.  She  came  nearer  than  thirty  yards 
and  abruptly  stopped.  She  had  suddenly  not 
liked  the  looks  of  my  evergreen.  Behind  her 
on  one  side,  the  last  steep  ascent  of  the  moun- 
tain rose  barer  and  barer  of  all  growth  to  its 
stony,  invisible  summit  which  a  curve  of  the 
final  ridge  hid  from  view.  Behind  her,  down 
the  quiet  slant  of  the  terrace,  was  the  wall  where 
she  had  left  the  lamb.  She  now  backed  a  few 
stiff  steps,  keeping  her  eye  upon  the  evergreen. 
Her  uncertainty  about  it,  and  the  ladylike  re- 
serve of  her  shut  lips,  caused  me  to  choke  with 
laughter.  To  catch  a  wild  animal  going  through 
a  (what  we  call)  entirely  human  proceeding  has 
always  been  to  me  a  delightful  experience ;  and 
from  now  to  the  end  this  sheep's  course  was  as 
human  as  possible.  I  had  been  so  engaged  with 
watching  her  during  the  last  few  minutes  that 
I  had  forgotten  the  lamb.  The  lamb  had  some- 
how got  up  the  wall  and  was  approaching.  Its 
mamma  now  turned  and  moderately  hasteped 


The  Mountain  Sbeep 


221 


down  the  slope  to  it.  What  was  said  between 
them  I  don't  know;  but  the  child  came  no  far- 
ther in  my  suspicious  direction ;  it  stayed  be- 
hind among  some  little  bushes,  and  the  mother 
returned  to  scrutinize  my  hiding-place.  She 
looked  straight  at  me,  straight  into  my  eyes  it 
seemed,  and  her  curiosity  and  indecision  again 
choked  me  with  laughter.  She  came  even 
nearer  than  she  had  come  before.  How  much 
of  me  she  saw  I  cannot  tell,  but  probably  my 
hair  and  forehead ;  she  at  any  rate  concluded 
that  this  was  no  suitable  place.  She  turned  as 
I  have  seen  ladies  turn  from  a  smoking-car,  and 
with  no  haste  sought  her  child  again.  How  she 
managed  their  next  move  passes  my  comprehen- 
sion ;  I  imagined  that  every  foot  of  the  moun- 
tain ascent  near  me  was  in  my  full  view.  But 
it  was  not.  Quite  unexpectedly  I  now  became 
aware  of  the  two,  trotting  over  the  shoulder  of 
the  ridge  above  me,  with  already  two  or  three 
times  the  distance  between  us  that  had  been  just 
now.  If  I  had  wished  to  follow  them,  it  would 
have  been  useless,  and  I  had  seen  enough. 
When  I  was  ready,  I  made  for  the  summit  my- 
self. The  side  which  I  had  so  far  come  up  was 
the  south  side,  and  a  little  further  climbing  took 


222  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

me  over  the  narrow  shoulder  to  the  north,  where 
I  was  soon  walking  in  long  patches  of  snow. 
Across  these  in  front  of  me  went  the  tracks  of 
the  mamma  and  her  lamb,  the  sage  and  gentle 
guide  with  the  little  novice  who  was  learning 
the  mountains  and  their  dangers;  across  these 
patches  I  followed  them  for  several  miles,  because 
my  way  happened  to  be  theirs.  No  doubt  they 
saw  me  sometimes ;  but  I  never  saw  them  again. 
I  hope  no  harm  ever  came  to  them;  for  I  like 
to  think  of  these  two,  these  members  of  an  inno- 
cent and  charming  race  that  we  are  making  away 
with,  as  remaining  unvexed  by  our  noise  and 
destruction,  remaining  serene  in  the  freedom  that 
lives  among  their  pinnacles  of  solitude. 


The  Mountain  Sheep  223 

AMERICAN   BIGHORN 

(OVIS   CANADENSIS1) 

The  bighorn  of  the  American  continent,  inclu- 
sive of  its  local  races  (frequently  regarded  as  dis- 
tinct species),  is  a  large  sheep,  distinguished  from 
the  Asiatic  argalis,  among  other  features,  by  the 
comparative  smoothness  of  the  horns,  in  which 
the  outer  front  angle  is  prominent,  and  the  inner 
one  rounded  off,  and  also  by  the  smaller  size  of 
the  face  glands.  There  is  a  well-marked  whitish 
patch  on  the  rump,  but  the  amount  of  white  on 
the  under  parts  and  legs  shows  considerable  local 
variation.  In  the  typical  Rocky  Mountain  race 
(O.  canadensis  typica)  the  ears  are  long  and 
pointed,  with  short  hair,  and  the  horns,  which  are 
very  heavy,  diverge  but  little  outwards,  and  gen- 
erally have  the  tips  broken.  The  Californian 
O.  canadensis  nelsoni  is  a  paler  southern  race. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  O.  canadensis  stonei  of  the 
northwest  territories  the  color  of  the  back  is  very 
dark,  and  the  white  on  the  belly  and  legs  sharply 
defined.  And  both  in  this  race  and  the  light- 
colored  O.  canadensis  dalli  of  Alaska  the  horns 

1  "  Records  of  Big  Game,"  Rowland  Ward,  third  edition. 


224  The  Mountain  Sbeep 

are  lighter,  more  divergent,  and  sharper  pointed, 
while  the  ears  tend  to  become  shorter,  blunter, 
and  more  hairy.  Height  at  shoulder  about  3  feet 
2  inches ;  weight  about  350  pounds. 

The  horns  of  the  ewes  are  very  small  in  com- 
parison to  those  of  the  rams,  seldom  measuring 
more  than  15  inches  on  the  curve  from  base  to 
tip.  Large  male  horns  are  now  difficult  to  obtain, 
and  of  late  years  it  is  seldom  that  those  of  fresh- 
killed  specimens  are  seen  exceeding  38  inches  on 
the  curve  from  tip  to  tip.  American  sportsmen 
are  keen  to  obtain  horns  of  large  basal  girth ;  but 
these,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  table, 
rarely  exceed  16  inches.  The  Maclaine  of  Loch- 
buie  possesses  a  specimen  whose  girth,  according 
to  his  own  measurement,  is  19  inches. 

Distribution. — North  America,  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  southward  to  Sonora,  northern  Mex- 
ico, and  California,  and  northward  to  Alaska  and 
the  shores  of  Bering  Sea.  The  Alaskan  race, 
for  at  least  some  portion  of  the  year,  is  snow- 
white. 


The  Mountain  Sbeep 

MEASUREMENTS  OF  HORNS 


225 


LENGTH 
ON  FRONT 
CURVE 

CIRCUM- 
FERENCE 

TIP  TO  TIP 

LOCALITY 

OWNER 

-54 

i8| 

The  Selkirks, 

W.  F.  Sheard 

B.C.,  1885 

-45 

? 

W.  Grant  Mackay 

-4*i 

i6i 

25! 

Lower  California 

George  H.  Gould 

42 

16 

(tips  much 

Wyoming 

Picked  up  by 

worn) 

T.  W.  H.  Clarke 

17* 

Wyoming 

T.  W.  H.  Clarke 

-4«i 

15 

Kootenay,  B.C. 

Measured  by  John  Fannin, 

Provincial  Museum,  B.C. 

-4°f 

I6| 

Yellowstone 

British  Museum 

40J 

»5l 

20j 

? 

Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder,  Bart. 

-40 

15! 

Rocky  Moun- 

Otho Shaw 

tains 

40 

15 

ail 

British  Columbia 

J.  W.  R.  Young 

39! 

15! 

Colorado 

St.  George  Littledale 

39? 

18} 

24f 

Montana 

British  Museum 

39i 

i5l 

19 

? 

Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder,  Bart. 

-39 

»s! 

? 

W.  A.  Baillie-Grohman 

3«l 

r5t 

22 

? 

Gerald  Buxton 

38* 

i6f 

Bighorn 

H.  Seton-Karr 

Mountains 

38* 

»5i 

I9i 

Montana 

Edmund  Littledale 

38* 

16 

»9 

N.W.  Territories 

S.  Ratcliff 

38 

'7 

Alberta,  N.W.T. 

Arnold  Pike 

38 

15 

British  Columbia 

Captain  F.  Cookson 

-38 

16} 

British  Columbia 

Major  C.  C.  Ellis 

37! 

«§J 

23l 

Mexico 

J.  A.  H.  Drought 

-371 

iS 

22^ 

British  Columbia 

J.  O.  Shields 

37i 

Jsl 

16 

British  Columbia 

J.  Turner-Turner 

-37 

16 

31 

Wyoming 

T.  W.  H.  Clarke 

37 

i6i 

Montana 

Major  Maitland  Kirwan 

37 

i6f 

16 

British  Columbia 

R.  H.  Venables  Kyrke 

37 

15* 

I8| 

Wyoming 

Lord  Rodney 

36| 

19 

15 

British  Columbia 

C.  H.  Kennard 

36f 

*Si 

22\ 

Wyoming 

Moreton  Frewen 

36| 

41 

,  , 

Wyoming 

Gerald  Buxton 

36| 

16 

? 

Thomas  Bate 

36^ 

H 

? 

J.  D.  Cobbold 

36* 

Ml 

w 

? 

Gerald  Buxton 

36 

i4i 

i6| 

Montana 

R.  H.  Sawyer 

36 

*5i 

Alberta,  N.W.T. 

Arnold  Pike 

36 

41 

16 

Wyoming 

Capt.  G.  Dalrymple  White 

-35i 

H! 

«7i 

Wyoming 

Count  E.  Hoyos 

35l 

*3 

ill 

British  Columbia 

G.  Wrey 

35! 

13! 

17* 

British  Columbia 

Hon.  S.  Tollemache 

226 


The  Mountain  Sheep 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  HORNS  (continued} 


LENGTH 
ON  FRONT 
CURVE 

CIRCUM- 
FERENCE 

TIP  TO  TIP 

LOCALITY 

OWNER 

35i 

16 

21 

British  Columbia 

T.  P.  Kempson 

35i 

I2i 

16 

California 

Sir  Victor  Brooke's  Coll. 

35i 

'Si 

i8| 

British  Columbia 

Sir  Peter  \Valker,  Bart. 

35 

British  Columbia 

Admiral  Sir  Michael 

Culme-Seymour,  Bart. 

-35 

IS 

'9f 

Wyoming 

Count  Schiebler 

35 

14 

16 

Wyoming 

Gerald  Hardy 

341 

Hi 

'9 

S.E.  Montana 

J.  A.  Jameson 

34i 

California 

G.  P.  Fitzgerald 

-34 

16 

'7 

N.W.  Wyoming 

A.  Rogers 

34 

i6J 

20 

British  Columbia 

Barclay  Bonthron 

Border 

33i 

'Si 

British  Columbia 

Admiral  Sir  Michael 

Culme-Seymour,  Bart. 

33 

'Si 

18 

British  Columbia 

Capt.  E.  G.  Verschoyle 

33 

'4l 

24i 

Wyoming 

Lieut.-Col.  Hon.  W.  Coke 

33 

'4i 

22 

? 

F.  H.  B.  Ellis 

33 

14 

23 

British  Columbia 

T.  P.  Kempson 

33 

'Si 

22 

British  Columbia 

A.  E.  Butter 

jel 

'7i 

? 

C.  G.  R.  Lee 

-13 

'4| 

19! 

Fraser  River, 

A.  E.  Leatham 

B.C. 

32* 

15 

'7l 

Lower  California 

G.  Barnardiston 

32 

'9i 

British  Columbia 

J.  W,  Wood,  Jr. 

32 

'4| 

'7i 

Yellowstone 

British  Museum 

River 

3'i 

'4i 

'7^ 

N.W.  Territory 

Maj.  Algernon  Heber-Percy 

31 

'7* 

Grand  Encamp- 

Frank Cooper 

ment,  Wyo. 

-31 

'3 

22 

British  Columbia 

T.  E.  Buckley 

15 

23 

? 

Hon.  Walter  Rothschild 

about 

3°i 

'5f 

'7z 

Lower  California 

Ely  Quilter 

30* 

'Si 

18 

Wyoming 

J.  L.  Scarlett 

—  3°2 

14 

'Si 

Wyoming 

Hugh  Peel 

30 

'4 

Alberta,  N.W.T. 

F.  C.  Williamson 

ALASKAN  BIGHORN  (Oms  canadensis  dallf) 


34 

I2f 

i8| 

Alaska 

Rowland  Ward 

33 

I2j 

15 

Alaska 

Hon.  Walter  Rothschild 

32* 

*3k 

20i 

Alaska 

J.  T.  Studley 

British  Museum 

99i 

4i 

8 

Alaska 

British  Museum 

THE   WHITE    GOAT   AND    HIS   WAYS 

BY  OWEN  WISTER 


ABOVE   TIMBER   LINE 


THE   WHITE   GOAT  AND   HIS 
WAYS 

SHOULD  you  wish  with  your  own  eyes  to  look 
upon  this  odd  and  much-debated  creature,  it  is 
(to  name  some  of  his  territories)  in  the  Saw 
Tooth  Range  in  Idaho,  and  among  the  peaks 
northward  from  Lake  Chelan,  the  Okanogan  and 
Methow  rivers,  all  three  in  Washington,  and 
also  upon  many  mountains  near  the  coast  in 
British  Columbia  that,  if  you  climb  high  and 
hard  enough,  you  are  almost  sure  to  find  him; 
and  you  would  be  perfectly  certain  to  find  him 
in  the  Zoological  Gardens  at  Philadelphia  to-day 
April  twenty,  1903.  But  it  may  be  that  by  the 
time  you  shall  read  this  the  summer  heat  of 
Philadelphia  will  have  ended  his  existence  there ; 
and  this  is  the  only  place  in  our  country  (or  in 
any  country  at  present  writing)  where  he  is  in 
captivity.  Of  his  natural  habitat  and  the  inter- 
esting questions  that  it  raises,  I  shall  presently 
speak ;  let  me  at  once  dismiss  the  question 

231 


23  2  The  IV bite  Goat 

of  his  species,  now  finally  known  as  Oreamnus 
montanus. 

He  is  not  a  goat  at  all.  We  have  fallen  to 
speaking  of  him  so  in  English  because  for  a  good 
number  of  years  it  has  been  the  name  he  has 
gone  by  where  he  lives;  but  he  is  an  antelope, 
and  his  nearest  relative  is  the  chamois,  whose 
quite  peculiar  way  of  walking  his  own  gait  closely 
resembles.  The  chamois  I  have  never  hunted, 
but  have  often  watched  the  singular  hunching 
and  truculent  movement  of  the  goat,  as  with  head 
lowered  (you  might  suppose  for  a  charge)  he 
slowly  and  heavily  proceeds  along  his  chosen 
vertiginous  paths  of  rock  and  snow.  He  is  a 
mountain  antelope ;  and  his  various  Latin  names, 
and  the  confusion,  both  popular  and  scientific,  of 
which  he  was  the  subject  through  most  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  are  curious  and  interesting 
matters.  He  was  doubtless  in  zoologic  truth  an 
emigrant,  having  walked  from  frozen  Asia  to  frozen 
America  across  that  great  old  Aleutian  Isthmus  be- 
tween two  frozen  oceans,  adjacent  seas  unmerged 
as  yet  by  Behring  Strait.  With  other  newcomers 
he  replaced  the  original  dwellers  of  the  soil,  the 
American  rhinoceros  and  any  number  more  of  old 
inhabitants  with  whom  the  climate  had  ceased  to 


Tbe  White  Goat  233 

agree.  After  landing  upon  our  continent  away 
up  in  the  north  the  goat  and  sheep  spread  them- 
selves widely;  but  the  goat  not  half  nor  a  quarter 
so  widely  as  the  sheep.  The  more  we  compare 
these  similar  creatures,  the  more  singular  seem 
their  contrasts. 

If  they  were  fellow-travellers  and  twin  arrivals, 
if  they  did  come  over  the  Aleutian  bridge  together, 
it  is  either  because  there  was  only  one  bridge  and 
both  had  to  use  it,  or  else  they  fell  out  on  the 
way,  and  reached  here  not  on  speaking  terms. 
The  first  hypothesis  is  the  one  to  which  I  incline  : 
they  had  to  use  the  same  trail  because  there  was 
only  one.  Sheep  and  goat  do  not  seem  to  me  to 
live  on  good  terms.  I  should  not  venture  this 
observation  were  it  based  upon  my  individual 
experience  alone.  What  my  campings  have 
gradually  led  me  to  notice  is  this :  you  don't  find 
sheep  and  goat  on  the  same  hill  as  you  find  elk 
and  deer  in  the  same  wood.  Considering  that 
both  animals  like  steep  places,  like  rocks,  like 
very  high  rocks ;  and  also  that  their  respective 
habitats  coincide  in  certain  regions,  —  in  British 
Columbia,  for  instance,  and  in  Washington,  and, 
I  think  one  might  fairly  add,  in  Idaho,  —  I  dare 
by  no  means  make  the  sweeping  assertion  that 


234  Tbe  White  Goat 

sheep  and  goat  have  never  been  found,  or  are  never 
to  be  found,  frequenting  the  same  pasture ;  I  don't 
know  this,  and  all  of  us  do  know  that  negatives 
are  difficult  of  proof.  But  I  have  camped  high 
in  Washington,  with  goats  in  profusion  all  around, 
and  the  whole  country  looking  precisely  like  a 
sheep  country,  yet  never  the  sign  of  a  sheep  any- 
where to  be  seen.  People  said,  "  Plenty  of  sheep 
over  there,"  and  they  would  point  to  some  clearly 
visible  heights.  And  next,  people  came  from  not 
thirty  miles  away,  having  seen  and  killed  sheep. 
It  was  the  same  latitude,  the  same  altitude,  the 
same  season,  the  same  everything.  What  is  to  be 
drawn  from  this  ?  That  it  was  an  accidental  year, 
and  just  happened  so  for  the  few  weeks  that  I  was 
there?  This  is  the  conclusion  that  you  might 
draw,  as  I  then  did ;  and  you  would  be  wrong,  as 
I  then  was.  For  I  returned  there  six  years  later, 
and  it  was  still  the  case,  and  had  been  the  case 
meanwhile,  saving  only  that  goats  and  sheep  and 
all  wild  animals,  wherever  their  chosen  abode  was, 
had  been  growing  scarcer  and  shyer,  and  were 
approaching  that  extinction  which  we  deal  to  all 
helpless  things  that  do  not  minister  to  our  own 
comfort  and  survival.  During  those  intervening 
years  I  had  hunted  sheep  in  a  country  which  for 


The  Wbite  Goat  235 

all  the  world  looked  as  if  a  goat  might  come  round 
the  corner  at  any  moment.  But  no  goat  ever 
did  ;  and  yet,  had  I  ridden  down  those  mountains, 
and  over  a  space  of  plains  to  the  westward,  and 
up  the  very  first  mountains  I  should  then  have 
met,  there  would  then  have  been  all  the  goat  I 
wanted,  and  not  (I  have  been  told)  a  single 
sheep ! 

Thinking  these  things  over,  I  began  to  wonder 
if  some  particular  kind  of  food  (since  climate  it 
could  absolutely  not  be)  was  the  cause  of  this 
flocking  apart.  Was  there,  perchance,  some  little 
herb  which  a  goat  must  have  and  a  sheep  didn't 
like  ?  Well,  if  that  be  so,  no  botanist  has  so  far 
told  me  its  name ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  very 
recently,  I  have  had  news  of  a  sportsman  who  was 
hunting  in  some  mountains  of  British  Columbia 
where  sheep  and  goat  were  both  readily  to  be 
found,  and  whose  experience  was  like  mine,  only 
more  marked  and  significant.  He  had  stood  upon 
one  mountain  where  there  were  goat,  and  looked 
across  to  an  adjacent  one  where  he  could  plainly 
see  sheep.  Now  on  his  mountain  there  was  not 
a  single  sheep ;  he  must  go  to  the  other  for  them  ; 
but  over  there  he  must  expect  no  goat.  He 
found  this  so,  and  he  was  assured  that  it  was 


236  The  IVbite  Goat 

always  so:  the  animals  did  not  seem  to  trespass 
upon  each  other's  premises. 

These  few  facts  that  I  have  here  gathered  seem 
to  me  worthy  of  recording,  and  perhaps  enough 
to  warrant  a  presumption ;  but  insufficient  for  an 
assertion.  Until  others  shall  have  on  their  part 
added  similar  observations,  I  would  lay  down  no 
rule  that  a  chronic  hostility  separates  Ovis  and 
Oreamnus.  Perhaps  such  a  rule  has  been  laid 
down,  but  if  it  be  printed  anywhere,  I  have  not 
met  it ;  nor  have  I  had  the  fortune  (after  consult- 
ing the  books)  to  meet  any  accounts  of  goat  which 
essentially  add  to  what  has  been  said  already  by 
Audubon ;  and  that  is  somewhat  meagre.  Many 
pictures  there  are,  much  better  than  his  old- 
fashioned  plates,  but  further  solid  information  is 
uncommonly  scarce.  Even  the  latest  and  most 
official  authorities,  when  you  test  their  pages  by 
an  intimate  searching  for  a  piece  of  comprehensive 
and  definite  information,  do  not  give  you  that 
information. 

If  my  surmise  be  true,  and  sheep  and  goat  are 
apt  to  be  upon  strained  relations,  I  think  we  may 
be  certain  which  of  the  two  has  regulated  the 
affair.  I  will  hazard  the  guess  that  in  single  com- 
bat the  goat  could  ruin  the  sheep  before  the 


The  White  Goat  237 

sheep  was  fully  aware  of  what  had  befallen  him. 
Hunters  can  picture  such  an  encounter,  which 
probably  would  be  brief  if  grand.  The  gallant 
old  sheep  would  stand,  aim,  bound  to  the  attack 
and  leap  in  the  air,  expecting  to  dash  his  forehead 
and  curling  horns  against  the  face  and  horns  of 
the  goat.  But  the  goat  —  ah !  that's  not  the 
goat's  way.  It  would  have  happened  so  quickly 
as  not  to  be  made  out;  but  there  the  poor  ram 
would  lie,  ripped  open.  The  goat  does  nothing 
so  picturesque  and  unpractical  as  jumping  in  the 
air.  He  lowers  his  sullen  head,  one  shrewd  thrust 
and  jerk-back  with  his  deadly  sharp  horns,  and 
the  business  is  despatched.  And  the  goat  looks 
it,  too.  His  appearance  suggests  immediately 
that  you  had  better  look  out  for  him  if  you 
happen  to  be  a  ram  with  beautiful  useless  horns 
—  useless,  that  is,  against  any  such  apparatus  as 
the  goat  carries.  One  day  I  stood  watching  a 
good  specimen  billy- Oreamnus.  The  nanny,  less 
conspicuous,  lay  in  the  shade  on  some  flat  ground, 
asleep.  But  the  billy  sat  hunched  on  the  peak  of 
a  built-up  pyramid  of  rocks.  It  was  in  the  Zoo- 
logical Gardens  at  Philadelphia  where  this  pair, 
taken  into  captivity  in  1901,  have  grown  and 
thrived,  but  have  not  bred.  The  billy  shows  his  for- 


238  Tbe  Wbite  Goat 

midable  nature ;  no  strangers  can  go  near  him ;  he 
would  disembowel  them  in  a  jiffy ;  even  his  keeper 
has  to  be  wary.  At  the  top  of  his  pile  of  rocks  sat 
the  captive,  hunched,  as  I  have  said,  and  truculent 
and  lowering,  in  spite  of  his  stillness.  His  eye 
had  that  gaze  which  so  wonderfully  remains  with 
wild  animals  who  are  prisoned  from  the  great  free 
natural  spaces  that  belong  to  them,  whose  birth- 
right is  a  liberty  of  no  sparrow-and-robin  size,  but 
a  colossal  liberty,  the  range  of  the  primal  world, 
where  fences  and  statutes  are  not.  Our  delight- 
fully conventional  intelligence  is  familiar  with 
this  look  in  the  eyes  of  the  lion  and  the  eagle 
because  the  poets  have  called  our  attention  to  it, 
have  said  pretty  things  about  it ;  but  if  you  have 
the  unusual  gift  of  making  your  own  observations, 
you  will  find  it  in  many  other  animals,  including 
certain  types  of  man.  As  for  this  goat,  no  goat 
sitting  on  a  rock  at  Harlem  could  stare  like  him ; 
he  might  have  been  sitting  on  the  top  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains,  surveying  huge  gulfs,  and 
(possibly)  meditating  how  improving  it  would  be 
to  disembowel  a  ram. 

As  I  watched  him,  an  odd  thought  revisited 
me :  how  Asiatic  he  looked,  for  some  obscure 
reason !  I  remembered  thinking  this  same  thing 


The  Wbite  Goat  239 

when  I  had  shot  my  first  goat  eleven  years 
before.  Asiatic  ?  Yes ;  and  I  cannot  at  all  ex- 
plain why,  unless  it  be  that  one  has  seen  pic- 
tures of  animals  which  hail  from  somewhere  like 
Tibet,  and  which  bear  some  resemblance  to  the 
Oreamnus.  I  know  that  no  other  of  our  Western 
big  game  strike  me  in  this  way ;  buffalo,  elk,  deer, 
antelope,  sheep,  —  all  these  have  always  seemed 
to  me  to  look  indigenous,  to  belong  to  our  North 
American  soil.  But  this  goat  is  a  figure  that 
it  surprises  me  to  meet  among  the  haunts  of  my 
own  language ;  his  idiom  should  be  Mongolian ! 
He's  white,  all  white,  and  shaggy,  and  twice  as 
large  as  any  goat  you  ever  saw.  His  white  hair 
hangs  long  all  over  him,  like  a  Spitz  dog's  or  an 
Angora  cat's;  but  it  is  stiff  and  coarse,  not  silky, 
and  against  its  shaggy  white  mass  the  blackness 
of  his  hoofs,  and  horns,  and  nose,  looks  particularly 
black.  His  legs  are  thick,  his  neck  is  thick,  every- 
thing about  him  is  thick,  saving  only  his  thin 
black  horns.  They're  generally  about  six  inches 
long,  they  spread  very  slightly,  and  they  curve 
slightly  backward.  At  their  base  they  are  a  little 
rough,  but  as  they  rise  they  cylindrically  smooth 
and  taper  to  an  ugly  point.  His  hoofs  are  heavy, 
broad,  and  blunt.  The  track  they  make  is  huge, 


240  The  Wbite  Goat 

and  precisely  the  reverse  of  the  sheep's ;  it  is  a 
capital  V,  pointing  backward.  The  sheep's  track 
is  a  V  also,  but  pointing  forward.  By  his  clumsy- 
looking  hoofs,  and  his  thick-set  and  apparently 
unwieldy  legs,  it  would  seem  as  though  this  goat 
had  best  keep  his  level,  as  though  he  might  sel- 
dom go  up  two  steps  of  even  a  porch  without 
accident;  a  set  of  legs  and  hoofs  could  scarce 
be  instanced  of  seemingly  less  avail  for  a  moun- 
taineer. So,  at  least,  I  should  argue,  recalling  the 
various  sharp  apparatus  which  we  need  ourselves. 
One  does  not  see  how  these  heavy  animals  can 
leap  and  cling.  But  let  me  transcribe  uncor- 
rected  some  sentences  from  my  hunting  journal 
of  November,  1892,  pencilled  in  flippant  spirit 
after  a  day's  pursuit  of  the  goat. 

"  They  .  .  .  chose  places  to  lie  down  where  fall- 
ing off  was  the  easiest  thing  you  could  do.  .  .  . 
The  individual  tracks  we  have  passed  always 
choose  the  inclined  plane  where  they  have  a 
choice  between  that  and  the  level.  ...  I  sup- 
pose these  animals  sometimes  must  fall,  though 
they  have  a  projecting  heel  of  horn  to  their  hoof 
which  is  wonderfully  adapted  to  their  vertical 
habits.  But  if  they  do  fall,  it  probably  amuses 
them.  Their  hair  is  more  impenetrably  thick 


The  White  Goat  241 

than  any  hair  I  have  seen,  and  beneath  this 
is  the  hide  thicker  than  buffalo.  If  they  play 
games  together,  it  is  probably  to  push  each  other 
over  a  precipice,  and  the  goat  that  takes  longest 
to  walk  up  again  loses  the  game." 

You  can  see  from  these  lines  what  a  tide  of 
resentment  flows  between  them.  I  remember 
that  hard  but  successful  day  very  well ;  and  it 
furnished  some  facts  about  size  and  weight  and 
so  on,  which  were  all  recorded  on  the  spot,  and 
which  give  some  good  details  well  to  know. 

To  begin  with,  there  is  that  "  projecting  heel  of 
horn  "  to  the  goat's  hoof.  We  cannot  imagine 
how  he  manages  to  make  such  a  slight  thing 
(not  over  a  quarter  of  an  inch)  catch  his  weight. 
He  weighs  anywhere  from  one  hundred  and 
eighty  to  three  hundred  pounds.  I  had  no  means 
that  day  on  top  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  to 
ascertain  how  much  the  male  I  had  killed  might 
weigh,  but  he  was  very  much  of  a  load  for  two 
of  us  to  move.  His  hide  (not  the  hair  but  the 
leather)  on  his  rump  was  as  thick  as  the  sole  of 
my  boot.  My  boot  was  made  for  climbing  moun- 
tains, and  the  sole  was  filled  with  hobnails ;  the 
hide  was  as  thick  as  such  a  sole,  and  when  bal- 
anced against  things  in  camp  whose  weight  we 


242  The  White  Goat 

knew,  —  such  as  flour  and  sugar  bags,  —  it  alone 
weighed  thirty  pounds !  We  carried  home,  be- 
side the  head  and  hide,  the  web-tallow,  and  this 
was  three-quarters  of  an  inch  thick.  Hunters 
will  know  what  ample  supply  this  means  in 
animals  much  larger  than  the  goat.  This  speci- 
men was,  my  most  companionable  guide  told  me, 
of  good  but  not  supreme  size.  We  carried  home 
none  of  the  meat.  The  flesh  of  the  grown-up 
goat  cannot  be  eaten  with  much  pleasure ;  but 
later,  for  the  sake  of  a  complete  set  of  specimens, 
I  shot  a  kid ;  and  the  flesh  of  this  we  ate  with 
entire  satisfaction  for  our  Thanksgiving  dinner. 
And  this  brings  me  to  the  next  point. 

"  These  wild  goat,"  says  my  journal,  "  are  twice 
the  size  and  more  of  the  ordinary  goat,  and  if 
their  hides  kept  clean  and  snow-white  as  they 
naturally  are,  they  would  be  a  splendid-looking 
animal." 

This  was  written  two  weeks  before  I  was  able 
to  examine  one  that  was  in  very  truth  snow- 
white  ;  and  lately,  while  looking  through  the 
books  to  find  what  they  have  to  say  that  may 
fill  out  my  imperfect  knowledge,  I  have  come 
more  than  once  on  the  statement  that  the  goat 
is  not  pure  white,  but  has  a  tinge  of  yellow,  or 


The  White  Goat  243 

some  shade,  here  and  there,  that  dulls  his  total 
sheen.  This  I  conceive  to  be  error.  Age,  it  is 
possible,  may  bring  a  few  dark  hairs  to  the  white 
goat.  But  I  should  wish  to  be  very  sure  about 
this  before  I  asserted  it.  The  sum  of  my  experi- 
ence is,  that  first  I  killed  some  plainly  old  male 
goats  (they  were  off  by  themselves,  no  longer 
with  the  herd),  and  of  these  the  coats  were 
dingy;  that  presently  I  found  a  plainly  younger 
male  goat  (he  was  lighter  in  weight  and  his 
horns  and  hoofs  showed  less  wear),  and  his  coat 
was  spotless ;  and  that  finally  I  found  the  coat  of 
a  kid  born  that  same  year  to  be  equally  spotless. 
What  is  the  inference  —  almost  the  conclusion? 
Is  it  not  that  in  the  older  goats  the  color  was 
discoloration,  from  causes  external ;  that  by  nature 
the  goat  is  perfectly  white ;  and  that  the  books 
have  gone  on  reproducing  an  original  mistake 
which  grew  from  some  writer's  having  seen  only 
goats  that  were  weather-stained  ?  Oh,  the  repro- 
duction of  error  !  The  way  one  man's  inaccurate 
statement  is  blandly  copied  down  by  the  next 
man,  and  verification  shirked  at  every  turn ! 
Why  will  they  do  it,  these  little  scientific  folk  ? 
For  the  great  ones  never  do.  The  great  ones 
verify,  or  else,  when  they  come  to  a  hole  in  their 


244  The  White  Goat 

knowledge,  they  frankly  tell  you  that  they  don't 
know.  They  paste  no  piece  of  paper  over  the 
hole,  pretending  it's  all  solid  underneath.  But 
the  small  fry  —  the  popular  magazine  size,  — 
these  unceasingly  are  pasting  paper.  And  why  ? 
Because  they're  not  afraid  of  being  found  out. 
They  know  how  few  of  their  readers  can  dis- 
cover the  holes  and  poke  their  fingers  through 
the  paper.  Don't  you  believe  me,  reader  ?  Does 
your  kind  heart  repudiate  with  heat  this  asper- 
sion ?  Perhaps  —  for  instance  —  you're  not  aware 
how  some  little  writers  go  on  deriving  the 
name  of  a  well-known  St.  Lawrence  fish  from 
two  French  words,  masque  allongee.  I  would 
tell  you  about  it,  only  I  did  not  discover 
their  ludicrous  blunder  myself ;  but  here's  a 
hole  where  I  happened  to  poke  my  own  finger 
through  the  paper.  During  ten  years  I  used 
every  official  map  of  Wyoming  that  I  could 
procure.  First  it  was  a  territory,  and  next  a 
state,  but  all  the  while  the  map-makers  con- 
tinued to  draw  Pacific  Creek  as  flowing  into 
Buffalo  Fork.  Now  Pacific  Creek  is  a  thorough- 
fare between  the  two  sides  of  the  Continental 
Divide,  and  it  does  not  flow  into  Buffalo  Fork, 
but  into  Snake  River.  It  was  a  really  bad  geo- 


The  White  Goat  245 

graphical  mistake.  Some  original  map-maker 
had  traced  his  map  on  hearsay  or  guesswork, 
hadn't  gone  down  the  creek  to  see  for  himself, 
and  all  his  successors  faithfully  reproduced  his 
ignorance.  The  people  who  knew  better  were 
merely  Indians,  prospectors,  cowboys,  or  stray 
hunters  like  myself.  We  didn't  count;  that 
wasn't  being  found  out ! 

Pacific  Creek  being  wrong  to  a  certainty,  how 
then  about  Atlantic  Creek,  and  Thoroughfare, 
and  a  good  many  more  ?  Did  these,  also,  flow 
one  way  officially,  and  actually  another?  How 
could  I  be  sure  until  I  had  crossed  mountains 
and  found  them  for  myself?  And  how  should 
you,  reader,  enjoy  being  condemned  to  such 
maps  in  a  country  where  Indians,  and  bears,  and 
blizzards  prevailed  ?  You  will  scarce  wonder 
that  I  grew  to  place  upon  those  maps  the  same 
chastened  reliance  that  I  place  to-day  upon  books 
which  tell  me  that  the  goat  is  not  strictly  white, 
or  that  he  lives  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  You 
might  search  a  good  many  hundred  miles  of 
Rocky  Mountains  that  have  never  seen  a  goat, 
but  which  the  sheep  has  frequented  since  before 
the  memory  of  man.  Here  again  comes  the  con- 
trast between  the  two:  having  come  the  same 


246  The  White  Goat 

road  from  Kamchatka,  their  ranges  upon  this 
continent  but  partially  coincide,  and  even  where 
both  animals  are  established  and  flourishing  in 
the  same  zone,  their  localities  within  that  zone 
are  so  capriciously  separated  as  to  baffle  even  the 
explanation  that  one  drives  the  other  out. 

It  would  seem  that  they  can  stand  equal  cold ; 
both  are  to  be  found  in  Alaska,  as  might  be 
expected  from  the  manner  of  their  emigration. 
And  beginning  with  Alaska  (one  authority,  R. 
Lydekker,  "  The  Royal  Natural  History,"  London, 
1898,  the  best  authority  I  have  found  for  co- 
herence and  completeness,  names  latitude  64°  as 
the  northern  limit),  we  find  goat  and  sheep  alike 
plentifully  distributed  as  we  come  south.  But 
only  for  a  certain  distance.  If  the  Northwest  be 
plain  like  a  picture  in  your  mind's  eye,  you  can 
recall  how  in  the  far  North  the  Cascades  and 
Rockies  are  intermingled,  and  how,  as  we  come 
down  through  British  Columbia  to  our  own  soil, 
they  gradually  separate,  slope  apart,  so  that  by 
the  time  they  reach  the  latitude  of  Portland, 
Oregon,  a  wide,  flat  domain  lies  between  them. 
Both  have  slanted  inland;  but  while  the  Cascades 
are  only  some  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  the 
Pacific  coast,  the  Rockies  are  away  over  in  Idaho 


The  Wbite  Goat  247 

and  Montana,  and  continue  to  diverge  until  they 
sink  among  the  hot  sands  of  the  mesquite  and 
the  yucca.  Now,  in  Arizona,  in  the  Colorado 
Canon  for  instance,  we  still  find  the  sheep,  and 
can  find  him  yet  farther  down  in  northwest 
Mexico.  But  no  goat  is  so  far  south.  The  goat 
stops  more  than  a  thousand  miles  to  the  north. 
It  seems  clear,  then,  that  goat  and  sheep  will 
inhabit  equal  cold,  but  not  equal  heat. 

Where,  exactly,  does  the  goat  stop  ?  That  is 
something  which  no  book  (that  I  have  seen)  will 
tell  you.  The  London  book,  which  I  have  quoted 
already,  names  latitude  40°  as  the  southern  limit 
of  his  habitat.  This  is  considerably  farther  south 
than  I  have  ever  heard  of  him.  My  knowledge 
of  him  goes  no  farther  south  than  the  Saw  Tooth 
Range,  which  is  in  Idaho.  These  sharp  ridges 
nourish  the  head  waters  of  the  Salmon  River, 
and  are  in  the  southern-central  part  of  the  state. 
And  I  am  inclined  to  say,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Lydek- 
ker,  but  supported  by  Mr.  Arthur  Brown,  that 
the  Saw  Tooth  and  Salmon  River  country  in 
Idaho  is  about  the  southeastern  corner  of  the 
goat's  province.  Saving  stray  and  accidental 
individuals,  you  are  not  likely  to  find  him  be- 
yond that  point,  south  or  east.  I  have  never 


248  The  White  Goat 

talked  with  any  hunter  who  had  seen  him  in 
Wyoming,  although  (and  here  again  I  will  re- 
enforce  my  own  experience  with  Mr.  Brown's) 
there  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  goat  tradition  in 
Wyoming,  here  and  there.  This  myth  is,  to  be 
sure,  highly  sublimated.  You  don't  hear  that 
goat  used  to  be  upon  this  or  that  definite  moun- 
tain, or  that  So-and-So  saw  a  man  who  saw  a 
goat,  or  whose  wife  or  uncle  saw  one;  it  never 
comes  as  near  you  as  that ;  yet  still  faintly  in  the 
air  of  the  Continental  Divide  there  hovers  this 
vague  rumor  of  the  animal. 

If  he  was  ever  in  Wyoming  as  a  domiciled 
resident,  who  shall  say  why  he  departed  ?  Why 
is  he  not  to-day  upon  the  Washakie  Needle,  or 
in  the  abrupt  country  where  heads  Green  River, 
or  among  the  formidable  Tetons,  since  to-day  he 
is  but  a  little  farther  west  of  the  Tetons,  in  the 
Saw  Tooth  Range  ?  And  why,  if  man  (or  sheep) 
drove  him  from  these  Wyoming  peaks,  has  he 
not  been  driven  from  the  peaks  of  Idaho  ?  Dif- 
ference in  neither  heat,  nor  cold,  nor  humidity, 
nor  accessibility,  can  be  the  explanation,  for  there 
is  no  difference;  and  as  for  difference  in  food,  I 
find  no  suggestion  of  it  in  the  pages  of  the 
authorities. 


The  Wbite  Goat  249 

"  What  they  eat  in  winter  is  a  mystery.  But 
it  must  be  the  little  knobs  of  moss  that  grow  at 
the  edges  of  the  steep  rocks  on  top,  where  the 
snow  cannot  lie.  They  never  come  down  into 
the  valleys,  as  the  mountain  sheep  do  when  the 
snow  grows  deep  up  above." 

This  is  no  authority,  but  merely  my  camp  note- 
book again ;  and  the  statement  that  the  goat  is 
never,  like  the  sheep,  driven  to  low  pastures  by 
the  snow  is  but  the  popular  account  of  him  that 
I  was  able  to  gather  from  the  inhabitants  —  the 
prospectors,  the  trappers  —  of  the  mountains 
where  I  hunted  him.  Yet  it  is  interesting;  and 
if  generally  true,  it  may  furnish  some  clue  to  the 
capricious  local  separations  between  sheep  and 
goat  in  the  zone  of  their  common  habitat.  But 
if  the  goat  cannot,  when  the  weather  would  drive 
him  down,  subsist  upon  the  less  lofty  growths 
that  then  satisfy  the  sheep,  you  will  remark  how 
truly  unlike  the  real  goat  is  this  narrow  discrimi- 
nation as  to  diet. 

It  is  surprising,  indeed,  that  at  this  late  day, 
when  investigation  and  verification  are  so  easy, 
no  naturalist  seems  anywhere  to  have  written  a 
plain,  complete  paragraph  answering  the  plain, 
natural  question :  In  what  states  and  territories 


250  The  White  Goat 

does  the  white  goat  live?  It  would  seem  the 
naturalist's  business  to  tell  us  this.  We  have  the 
right  to  expect  to  open  some  single  standard 
book,  and  find  such  facts  at  once.  Well,  I  have 
had  to  open  eight,  gathering  here  a  fact  and  there 
a  fact  in  a  manner  not  unlike  the  painful  process 
of  rag-picking.  The  result  is  far  from  covering 
the  ground ;  let  me  acknowledge  this,  and  beg 
friendly  correction  and  amplification,  —  and  let 
me  say,  nevertheless,  that  the  following  is  the 
most  detailed  information  to  be  found  so  far 
set  down  in  any  one  place. 

In  Alaska  and  British  Columbia  we  find  the 
goat,  and  in  northwest  Montana,  and  in  Idaho, 
but  only  in  spots;  he  is  also  in  the  northern 
Cascades  in  Washington,  but,  oddly  enough  it  ap- 
pears, not  in  the  Olympic  Range.  Nor  is  he  in 
the  southern  Cascades,  in  Oregon.  Elsewhere 
he  is  not,  unless  possibly  in  California.  There 
is  an  ancient  legend  of  him  among  the  higher 
mountains  of  that  state;  the  Spanish  Padre  de 
Salvatierra  and  his  fellow-missionary,  Padre  Pic- 
colo, are  supposed  to  have  seen  him.  We  must 
uselessly  wonder  if  they  did ;  and  I  should  have 
been  more  indebted  to  a  foot-note  in  the  "  Bio- 
logical Survey  of  Mount  Shasta,"  which  touches 


The  W 'bite  Goat  251 

upon  the  goat's  habitat  in  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington, were  it  not  wholly  silent  as  to  the 
animal's  presence  or  absence,  past  or  present, 
in  the  state  of  California. 

The  farther  we  follow  the  story  of  the  white 
goat,  the  more  do  we  find  his  steps  attended  with 
the  mists  of  confusion ;  and  for  the  gloomy  critic 
this  would  be  a  timely  moment  to  write  some 
sentences  about  the  longevity  of  error.  But  it 
all  came  out  right  in  the  end ;  and  we  will  get 
to  the  facts  at  once,  and  how  I  first  began  to 
meet  the  stream  of  uncertainty  of  which  the 
fountain-source  lies  in  the  old  romantic  pages  of 
Lewis  and  Clark. 

A  while  ago  I  spoke  of  a  goat  tradition  in 
Wyoming.  Now  it  was  not  until  the  fall  of  1889 
that  I  believed  there  was  such  a  thing  as  this 
goat  anywhere.  I  thought  —  I  could  not  then 
say  why  —  that  the  unlettered  mountaineers  and 
plainsmen,  whose  talk  I  heard,  were  speaking  of 
the  sheep  ;  and,  also,  they  contradicted  each  other 
in  a  way  so  curious  and  persistent  that  the  animal 
became  in  a  manner  fabulous  to  me,  like  the  uni- 
corn, or  the  wool-bearing  horse.  Now  I  would 
meet  the  assurance  that  "  over  there  somewhere," 
among  the  mountains  near  the  Pacific,  a  snow- 


252  The  White  Goat 

white  goat  lived,  with  long  hair;  again,  I  would 
meet  a  positive  denial  of  this.  Some  sceptical 
old  trapper  or  prospector  would  proclaim  that  he 
"  guessed  he  had  been  most  everywhere,"  and  no- 
body could  "  fool  him  about  no  goat "  with  long 
hair.  Indeed,  when  I  at  last  laid  my  own  goat 
trophies,  heads  and  hides,  before  the  eyes  of  my 
old  friend  John  Yancey  of  the  Yellowstone  Park, 
they  gave  him  a  genuine  sensation.  He  had 
wasted  small  faith  in  any  tales  of  goat.  He  stared 
at  them,  he  touched  them,  he  lifted  them,  he 
could  not  get  over  it ;  they  caused  me  to  rise  in 
his  esteem,  and  he  refused  to  believe  that  circum- 
venting a  mountain  sheep  is  a  far  more  skilful 
exploit.  He,  too,  like  myself,  had  supposed  that 
in  some  way  this  notion  about  goats  could  be 
traced  to  mountain  sheep,  and  that  they  were  one 
and  the  same  animal.  I  found  this  error  spread 
eastward  to  great  cities. 

In  the  front  hall  of  a  certain  club  there  used  to 
hang  —  and  still  hangs,  for  all  I  know  —  the  head 
of  a  white  goat.  I  stood  near  it  one  day  in  1894 
or  1895,  while  two  gentlemen  were  looking  at  it. 
One  had  hunted  in  our  West,  and  was  asked  by 
the  other  what  animal  this  was.  He  replied  with 
certainty,  "  A  mountain  sheep."  It  was  no  busi- 


THE   WHITE    GOAT   IS   AN    AGILE   CLIMBER 


The  Wbite  Goat  255 

ness  of  mine,  and  I  did  not  correct  him.  But 
how  inveterate  and  singular  was  the  confusion  ! 
for  these  two  wild  animals  do  not  resemble  each 
other  a  particle  more  than  do  their  domestic 
namesakes.  In  the  hall  of  the  club  that  day  I 
did  not  know  that,  ninety  years  before,  the  self- 
same blunder  had  been  made  and  written  down 
for  the  first  time,  and  that  we  were  still  inherit- 
ing its  consequences. 

On  September  twenty-six,  1805,  Meriwether 
Lewis,  quite  inconveniently  sick,  was,  with  his 
equally  inconveniently  sick  comrades,  camped  for 
the  purpose  of  building  canoes.  They  lay  at  the 
confluence  of  the  north  fork  with  the  main  stream 
of  that  river  which  Idaho  now  most  often  calls  the 
Clearwater,  and  which  the  Indians  then  called 
the  Kooskooskee.  They  had  come  overland  a 
great  way  —  two  thousand  miles  —  walking  and 
riding.  They  had  lately  been  high  among  the 
cold  snows,  and  they  were  now  abruptly  plunged 
in  the  flat  climate  of  the  plains.  Heat  and  the 
copious  new  food  made  every  mother's  son  of 
them  ill.  But  a  few  days  before  this,  and  they 
had  been  sparingly  serving  out  rations  of  horse 
flesh  to  keep  together  soul  and  body;  now  the 
Indians  have  given  them  all  the  salmon  they  can 


256  The  White  Goat 

swallow,  and  taught  them  to  eat  the  camass,  a 
precarious  vegetable.  In  the  language  of  Doc- 
tor Coues  (the  admirable  annotator  of  the  1894 
edition,  one  can  hardly  imagine  a  better  and 
honester  piece  of  work) :  "  Having  been  neither 
frozen  nor  starved  quite  to  death  —  having  sur- 
vived camass  roots,  tartar  emetic,  and  Rush's 
pills  (the  famous  Dr.  Rush  of  Philadelphia,)  the 
explorers  have  reached  navigable  Columbian 
waters.  ..."  I  could  quote  from  this  splendid 
book  forever.  It  is  our  American  Robinson 
Crusoe.  Somebody,  no  doubt,  will  grind  it  into 
a  historical  novel ;  but  no  novel,  no  matter  how 
big  a  sale  it  has,  can  spoil  the  journal  of  Lewis 
and  Clark.  Well,  at  this  sick  camp,  while  they're 
making  ready  to  float  to  Astoria,  enter  the  white 
goat.  It  is  his  first  recorded  appearance. 

Says  Gass :  "  There  appears  to  be  a  kind  of 
sheep  in  this  country,  besides  the  ibex  or  moun- 
tain sheep,  and  which  have  wool  on.  I  saw  some 
of  the  skins,  which  the  natives  had,  with  wool 
four  inches  long,  and  as  fine,  white,  and  soft  as 
any  I  had  ever  seen." 

Here,  you  perceive,  is  the  error,  appearing 
simultaneously  with  the  goat. 

These  sheep  "  live,"  says  the  text  in  another 


The  Wbite  Goat  257 

place,  uin  greater  numbers  on  that  chain  of 
mountains  which  forms  the  commencement  of 
the  woody  country  on  the  coast  and  passes  the 
Columbia  between  the  falls  and  rapids."  Accu- 
rate in  everything  save  the  name. 

Next  comes  the  observation  (William  Dunbar 
and  Dr.  Hunter)  written  on  the  Columbia  River 
near  the  Dalles :  "  We  here  saw  the  skin  of  a 
mountain  sheep,  which  they  say  lives  among  the 
rocks  in  the  mountains;  the  skin  was  covered 
with  white  hair;  the  wool  was  long,  thick,  and 
coarse,  with  long,  coarse  hair  on  the  top  of  the 
neck  and  on  the  back,  resembling  somewhat  the 
bristles  of  a  goat." 

This  time,  you  see,  they  are  on  the  very  edge 
of  getting  the  thing  straight.  But  no;  they 
recede  again,  after  the  following  which  seems  to 
promise  complete  clearing  up :  — 

"  A  Canadian,  who  had  been  much  with  the 
Indians  to  the  westward,  speaks  of  a  wool-bearing 
animal  larger  than  a  sheep,  the  wool  much  mixed 
with  hair,  which  he  had  seen  in  large  flocks." 

April  ten,  1806,  the  party  is  on  its  return  jour- 
ney. It  has  successfully  wintered  on  the  coast, 
and  has  now  come  up  the  Columbia  again,  fifty 
miles  above  Vancouver. 


258  The  Wbite  Goat 

"  While  we  were  at  breakfast  one  of  the  In- 
dians offered  us  two  sheepskins  for  sale;  .  .  . 
the  second  was  smaller  ....  with  the  horns  re- 
maining. .  .  .  The  horns  of  the  animal  were 
black,  smooth,  and  erect;  they  rise  from  the 
middle  of  the  forehead,  a  little  above  the  eyes, 
in  a  cylindrical  form,  to  the  height  of  four  inches, 
where  they  are  pointed." 

Here  there  is  no  mistake  about  the  mistake ; 
he  describes  a  goat  and  calls  it  a  sheep.  Why 
he  should  do  this  when  he  had  seen  the  bighorn 
constantly  during  his  journey  up  the  Missouri 
may  possibly  be  thus  explained :  He  says  that 
he  did  not  think  the  bighorn  much  like  a  sheep, 
and  so,  perhaps,  the  goat  did  not  strike  him  as 
much  like  a  goat;  we  know  it  happens  to  be 
an  antelope.  But  however  we  account  for  this 
original  mixing  of  names,  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
how  good  a  start  the  mixing  got ;  and  after  read- 
ing the  text  of  the  old  confusion,  is  it  not  odd 
and  interesting  to  trace  it  down  through  the 
years,  down  through  Yancey,  to  the  front  hall  of 
the  club  ?  to  find  it  cropping  up  among  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men,  now  in  a  city  and  now  on 
top  of  the  Wind  River  Mountains,  where  it  used 
to  perplex  me  ? 


The  White  Goat  259 

And  this  is  only  the  popular  side  of  it;  the 
scholars  have  been  just  as  mixed  as  Yancey. 
The  scientific  side  of  the  story  is  picturesquely 
seen  through  the  dynasty  of  Latin  names  succes- 
sively lavished  upon  the  goat. 

The  country  at  large  first  heard  of  the  goat  in 
1806,  when  Thomas  Jefferson  accompanied  his 
message  to  Congress  about  Lewis  and  Clark's 
exploration  with  various  documents,  and  among 
these  the  observations  of  William  Dunbar  and 
Dr.  Hunter.  Nine  years  later  the  eminent 
George  Ord  gave  to  the  animal  his  first  aca- 
demic baptism,  and  he  appeared  as  Ovis  mon- 
tana.  Pretty  soon  M.  de  Blainville  seems  to 
have  called  him  Antilope  americana,  and  Rupi- 
capra  americana.  By  1817  he  was  known  as 
Mazama  Sericea  —  which  is  wandering  pretty 
wide  of  the  family.  Four  years  more,  and  he  is 
plain  Rocky  Mountain  sheep.  Next  follow  Capra 
montana^  Antilope  lanigera,  Capra  Americana, 
and  Haplocerus  montanus.  This  last  was  begin- 
ning to  look  permanent,  when  it  was  discovered 
that  somebody  had  for  some  time  been  styling 
the  goat  by  a  well-devised  appellation,  to  wit, 
Oreamnus  montanus.  He  goes  by  that  now; 
and  it  may  be  doubted  if  any  thief  has  more 


260  The  Wbite  Goat 

frequently  employed  an  alias  than  this  probably 
blameless  animal.  Such  is  the  story  of  the  con- 
fusion begun  —  we  can  only  guess  why  —  by 
Lewis  and  Clark,  and  not  cleared  up  until  our 
own  day. 

The  goat  is  an  animal  far  less  wary  than  the 
sheep.  His  watch  is  concentrated  upon  ap- 
proaches from  below.  All  the  hunter  has  to  do 
is  to  get  above  him,  to  make  at  once  for  the 
summit  of  the  ridge  which  he  proposes  to  hunt, 
and  the  unsuspecting  creature  will  never  give  you 
a  thought.  Upon  my  word,  it  is  inexcusable  to 
kill  him,  except  for  a  specimen  in  a  collection ; 
he  is  so  handsome,  so  harmless,  and  so  stupid ! 
And  in  his  remoter  haunts,  where  the  nature  of 
man  is  still  a  closed  book  to  him,  he  "thinketh 
no  evil " ;  he  will  stand  looking  at  the  hunter 
with  a  sedate  interest  in  his  large,  deep  brown 
eyes.  The  tenderfoot  sportsman,  it  seems,  will 
generally  make  his  beginnings  as  a  maniac.  Sud- 
denly confronted  with  a  herd  of  wild  animals,  he 
frantically  pumps  his  repeating  rifle,  hypnotized 
by  the  glut  of  destruction.  Luckily,  he  is  apt,  in 
his  excitement,  to  miss.  His  desire  is  for  no  one 
special  trophy,  but  for  a  hot  killing  of  all  in  sight. 
If  we  are  not  to  blame  him  for  this  flare  of  blind 


Tbe  WUte  Goat  261 

brute  instinct,  for  heaven's  sake  don't  let  us  praise 
the  performance !  The  best  that  can  possibly  be 
said  for  it  is  to  call  it  the  seamy  side  of  masculin- 
ity ;  and  the  seamy  side  of  masculinity  fits  coward- 
ice like  a  glove.  I  am  speaking  from  the  sinner's 
bench ;  and  long  back  in  the  years  (not  so  long 
materially,  but  miles  and  miles  every  other  way) 
I  see  one  or  two  spots  of  shame.  To-day,  my 
wish  is  to  photograph  the  game,  and  let  him  go 
his  way  in  peace. 

With  my  rifle  I  carried  a  kodak  among  the 
goats.  The  kodak  and  the  rifle  made  a  dis- 
comfortable  pair  now  and  then.  For  instance :  — 

"  Saturday  twelfth  (November)  four  and  one-half 
hours'  climb  up  opposite  ridge,  so  as  to  get  above 
goat  seen  yesterday.  Snow  six  and  eight  inches 
deep  on  top."  This  was  a  day  that  I  carried 
both  instruments,  and  the  rocks  continually 
required  the  use  of  both  hands.  Well,  I  got 
the  goat  that  I  wanted  with  my  rifle.  I  took 
the  kodak  home  with  one  hundred  pictures  of 
my  very  long,  hard,  interesting  journey.  It  was 
the  year  that  the  company's  films  were  bad,  and  I 
drew  one  hundred  blanks ;  there  was  not  the 
semblance  of  an  image  upon  a  single  one.  The 
same  mischance  had  attended  the  Greely  expedi- 


262  The  Wbtte  Goat 

tion,  and  I  had  not  travelled  as  far  as  they  did ; 
so  you  see  my  mouth  must  utter  no  complaints. 
No;  my  mileage  fell  short  of  the  Greely  expe- 
dition; but  no  goat  will  ever  tempt  me  through 
such  adventures  again.  Alas,  that  a  man  should 
come  to  shrink  from  discomforts  which  once 
—  but  let  me  tell  you  about  some  of  them. 

Because  nothing  but  good  fellowship  and 
kindness  were  shown  me  there,  I  suppress  the 
name  of  the  town  at  the  railroad's  end  where 
I  waited  from  Saturday  till  Monday  for  the  north- 
bound stage.  It  was  Saturday,  October  ninth,  my 
journal  reminds  me. 

"  They  gave  me  a  room.  ...  I  was  glad  to 
see  as  little  of  it  as  possible.  I  washed  in  the 
public  trough  and  basin  which  stood  in  the  office 
between  the  saloon  and  the  dining  room;  and 
I  spent  my  time  either  in  the  saloon  watching  a 
game  of  poker  that  never  ceased,  or  in  wander- 
ing about  in  the  world  outside.  A  Chinaman 
named  Madden  .  .  .  played  poker  and  of  course 
lost  to  his  American  friends,  .  .  .  swearing  in 
the  most  ludicrous  jargon.  .  .  .  Yet  he  was  good- 
natured  .  .  .  the  men  seemed  to  like  him  ...  at 
night  he  returned  to  the  never  ending  game  and 
lost  some  more.  ...  I  went  to  my  room  to  go 


Tbe  Wbite  Goat  263 

to  bed,  turned  down  the  bed  clothes,  and  saw 
there,  not  what  I  feared,  but  cockroaches  to  the 
number  of  several  thousand,  I  should  think. 
They  scampered  frantically,  jostling  each  other 
like  any  other  crowd.  Then  I  lifted  one  pillow 
and  watched  more  cockroaches  hurry  under  the 
neighboring  pillow  for  shelter.  Then  I  saw  that 
the  walls,  ceiling,  and  floor  were  all  quivering 
and  sparkling  with  cockroaches.  So  I  told  the 
landlord  downstairs.  I  said  that  if  he  had  no 
other  room,  I  would  throw  my  camp  blankets 
on  the  office  table  and  sleep  there  if  he  had  no 
objection.  He  was  sympathetic,  and  explained 
that  the  cockroaches  must  have  come  up  from 
the  kitchen  which  was  below  my  room.  This 
was  Saturday  night,  and  every  Saturday  night 
the  cook  put  powder  in  the  kitchen ;  so  that  must 
have  sent  them  up.  This  explanation  was  given 
me  in  a  voice  full  of  condolence.  And  I  replied 
that  very  likely  this  was  how  they  came  and  that 
sleeping  in  bed  with  so  many  at  a  time  would 
be  impossible.  He  entirely  agreed  with  me. 
'  Yes,'  he  said,  c  cockroaches  is  hell.'  .  .  . 

"  So  I  unrolled  my  blankets  and  the  landlord 
helped  me  make  my  bed  on  his  office  table,  lift- 
ing the  inkstands  and  newspapers  for  me.  .  .  . 


264  The  White  Goat 

I  went  to  sleep,  hearing  the  game  of  poker  in  the 
adjoining  room,  the  gobbling  of  Madden  when 
he  lost,  and  the  hoarse  merriment  of  the  other 
men  at  his  gibberish. 

"  Sunday.  .  .  .  This  morning  the  game  was 
still  going  on,  but  Madden  had  retired  about 
four  o'clock  a  loser.  The  bar-tender,  sweeping 
the  office,  waked  me,  and  I  arose  and  made  a 
toilet,  as  usual,  in  the  public  trough." 

The  retrospect  fills  me  with  merriment  — 
and  regret  that  it's  all  over  for  ever  and  ever; 
and  the  goat  does  not  live  for  whose  sake  I 
would  do  it  again. 

It  is  hard  not  to  yield  to  further  temptation, 
not  to  transcribe  from  that  diary  of  1892  much 
more  about  the  appearance  and  customs  of  the 
strange  wild  country  through  which  I  now  passed 
on  my  way  to  the  goat.  Some  of  the  landscape 
was  the  worst,  the  forlornest,  the  most  worthless 
that  I  know,  far  outstripping  Nevada  in  sheer 
meanness,  and  as  desolate  as  Arizona,  without 
Arizona's  magic  splendor  and  fascination.  Great 
deserts  without  grandeur,  great  valleys  without 
charm,  great  rocks  without  dignity,  mere  lonely 
ugliness  everywhere ;  that  is  the  Big  Bend  coun- 
try ;  and  the  river  Columbia  itself,  when  you  finally 


Tbe  White  Goat  265 

descend  to  it  from  the  parched  bare  dust  and  the 
strewn  black  boulders  of  the  table-land,  is  a 
sweeping,  sullen,  shadeless  flood,  the  most  un- 
lovely river  that  ever  I  have  seen. 

I  like,  when  I  can,  to  bring  support  to  my 
opinions.  On  a  later  day,  in  the  middle  of  the 
Big  Bend,  I  came  upon  a  desolate  sign-post, 
placed  there  no  doubt  to  cheer  up  the  wayfarer's 
discouraged  heart.  This  post  announced  that 
Central  Ferry  was  thirty-five  miles  distant;  and 
below  this  a  wayfarer  had  scrawled  his  personal 
comment:  — 

Forty-five  miles  to  water. 
And  a  subsequent  wayfarer  had  added :  — 

Seventy-five  miles  to  wood. 
And  a  final  wayfarer :  — 

Two  and  one-half  miles  to  hell. 

Ah,  the  dauntless,  invaluable  spirit  of  man! 
Those  few  words  scrawled  by  a  hand  that  I 
should  like  to  shake,  made  the  desert  blossom 
with  humor,  and  I  continued  on  my  journey  with 
a  smiling  heart. 

Three  nights  out  from  the  cockroaches,  and  I 
was  sleeping  in  the  open,  among  pleasant  hills. 


266  The  Wbite  Goat 

An  old  ragged  fiddler,  with  hair  hanging  grizzled 
to  his  shoulders,  had  kept  me  listening  late  to 
all  sorts  of  old-fashioned  tunes  and  dances.  He 
had  fiddled  his  way  across  our  continent,  and 
had  taken  his  lifetime  to  do  so.  Here  he  was, 
with  silvering  hair,  up  in  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains. I  spread  my  blankets  a  hundred  yards 
from  his  cabin,  where  he  lived  alone.  He  was 
perfectly  blithe-hearted  and  perfectly  penniless. 
I  don't  know  his  name;  I  never  saw  him  but 
that  once ;  I  suppose  he  is  dead ;  but  his  dis- 
course and  his  fiddle  gave  me  an  evening  of 
entertainment  over  which  I  still  sometimes  dwell. 
Had  I  found  no  goat,  the  characters  that  I  met, 
such  as  he,  would  have  rewarded  my  excursion. 
But  all  things  came  to  me.  After  some  vain 
trips,  whence  I  returned  empty  handed  from 
fairly  rough  camping,  on  Wednesday,  Novem- 
ber 2,  the  diary  reads,  "  One  of  my  particular  long- 
cherished  wishes  is  accomplished,  and  I  have 
seen  and  killed  a  mountain  goat."  On  the  next 
day  a  second  head  and  hide  hung  in  our  very 
snug  camp.  These  first  two  were  males,  and 
they  served  as  a  basis  for  the  description  that 
I  have  attempted  to  draw  earlier  in  this  chapter. 
It  was  while  we  sat,  my  companionable  guide 


The  Wbtte  Goat  267 

and  I,  skinning  the  second  goat,  that  we  held  a 
conversation  which  I  must  here  record. 

How  we  ever  fell  upon  such  a  subject  as  the 
royal  family  of  England,  I  do  not  remember; 
but  camping  in  the  wilderness  uses  up  subjects, 
and  leaves  you  with  a  steadily  narrowing  choice 
each  day;  and  T — ,  who  took  an  illustrated 
paper,  observed  to  me  that  he  had  always  rather 
liked  "that  chap  Lome."  This  was  how  he 
phrased  it;  his  language  about  some  of  the 
others  held  less  of  compliment. 

Now  I  had  happened,  not  long  before  this,  to 
read  of  a  distressing  contretemps  that  had  be- 
fallen the  procession  during  the  Queen's  jubilee, 
and  I  reminded  T —  of  this ;  but  it  was  new  to 
him.  So  I  told  him  that  while  the  crowned 
heads  were  proceeding  in  state  through  London 
streets  with  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  watch- 
ing them  with  admiration,  the  Marquis  of  Lome's 
horse  kicked  up.  It  was  a  horse  that  required 
a  better  rider  than  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  con- 
sidered the  marquis  to  be,  for  he  had  warned 
him  against  the  animal  beforehand.  But  the 
marquis  preferred  to  ride  him.  And  so  the  horse 
kicked  up,  and  off  fell  the  marquis,  right  in  the 
middle  of  the  Queen's  jubilee. 


268  The  Wbite  Goat 

T —  looked  at  me  and  said  nothing.  I  was 
therefore  left  uncertain  if  it  came  home  to  the 
mind  of  the  mountaineer  that  this  royal  progress, 
this  historic  and  panoplied  moment,  was  a  bad 
one  for  a  nobleman  to  select  to  tumble  off  his 
horse  in.  I  continued :  — 

"  I  believe  that  the  Queen,  upon  seeing  the 
accident,  sent  somebody.'' 

"  Where  ?"  said  T— . 

"  To  the  marquis.  She  probably  called  the 
nearest  King  and  said,  '  Frederick,  Lome's  off. 
Go  and  see  if  he's  hurt' " 

" '  And  if  he  ain't  hurt,  hurt  him,' "  added  T— , 
speaking  for  the  Queen.  So  I  perceived  that  he 
had  given  the  situation  its  full  value. 

After  this  second  day  of  success,  storm  and 
snow  beat  down  upon  us,  a  blinding  day,  keep- 
ing us  in  camp.  More  storms  followed,  and  no 
more  goat;  and  we  had  to  shoot  a  horse  which 
had  "  cast "  himself,  being  entangled  in  his  rope, 
and  so  frozen  as  he  lay  helpless  overnight  in  the 
heavy  snow.  We  left  these  mountains  and  de- 
parted to  others  in  search  of  a  herd  of  goat; 
I  wished  a  female  and  kid,  and  we  seemed  to 
have  lighted  upon  a  resort  of  old  solitary  males. 
Eight  days  after  the  second  goat  we  sighted  our 


The  WUte  Goat  269 

herd,  and   this   occasioned   an   experience   more 
enlightening. 

I  feel  confident  that  those  who  have  done 
much  hunting  of  big  game  have  sometimes 
heard  such  words  as  these:  "This  mountain  used 
to  have  a  bunch  of  sheep  on  it  all  the  time;  three 
hundred  sheep ;  "  or,  "  Just  about  here  last  season 
I  ran  into  a  band  of  twelve  hundred  elk;"  or, 
"  I  passed  two  thousand  antelope  on  the  flat 
yesterday."  The  person  who  says  this  to  you 
will  have  been  your  own  guide,  or  some  visitor 
to  camp  who  is  comparing  notes  and  exchang- 
ing anecdotes.  I,  at  any  rate,  have  listened  many 
times  to  such  assertions;  and  now  and  then  I 
have  been  tempted  to  observe  (for  instance)  in 
reply :  "  Two  thousand  antelope !  When  you'd 
counted  nineteen  hundred  and  ninety-nine,  I 
should  think  you'd  have  been  too  tired  to  go  on." 
But  these  are  temptations  that  I  have  resisted. 
I  think,  too,  that  the  men  believed  what  they 
said  —  in  a  general  way.  But  here  with  the 
goat  was  a  famous  opportunity.  We  could  see 
them  clearly ;  they  were  across  a  canon  from  our- 
selves, a  mile  or  so  away;  they  were  lying  down, 
or  standing,  some  eating,  some  slowly  moving 
about  a  little;  they  were  in  crowds,  and  in  smaller 


270  The  White  Goat 

groups,  and  by  ones  and  twos,  changing  their 
positions  very  leisurely;  and  they  seemed  num- 
berless; they  were  up  and  down  the  hill  every- 
where. Getting  to  them  this  day  was  not 
possible,  since  most  of  the  day  was  already  gone, 
and  we  were  high  up  on  an  opposite  mountain 
side. 

"  There's  a  hundred  thousand  goat !  "  exclaimed 
T — ;  and  I  should  have  gone  home  asseverating 
that  I  had  seen  at  least  hundreds. 

"  Let's  count  them,"  said  I.  We  took  the 
glasses  and  did  so.  There  were  thirty-five. 

From  these  thirty-five  during  the  next  two 
days  I  completed  with  no  trouble,  save  hard 
climbing,  my  tally  of  desired  specimens,  —  an 
adult  male  and  female,  and  a  kid,  for  my  own 
keeping,  with  two  males  to  give  away  to  friends. 
And  I  learned  a  little  more  about  the  goat. 

The  female  is  lighter  built  than  the  male,  and 
with  horns  more  slender  —  a  trifle.  And  (to  re- 
turn to  the  question  of  diet)  we  visited  the  pas- 
ture where  the  herd  had  been,  and  found  no  sign 
of  grass  growing,  or  grass  eaten ;  there  was  no 
grass  on  that  mountain.  The  only  edible  sub- 
stance was  a  moss,  tufted,  stiff,  and  dry  to  the 
touch.  The  largest  horns  at  the  base  measured 


Tbe  WUte  Goat  271 

six  inches  in  circumference,  and  twenty-one  and 
a  half  inches  from  one  tip  down  to  the  skull  and 
so  across  and  up  to  the  other  tip.  I  also  learned 
that  the  goat  is  safe  from  predatory  animals. 
With  his  impenetrable  hide  and  his  disembowel- 
ling horns,  he  is  left  by  the  wolves  and  mountain 
lions  respectfully  alone.  And  T —  told  me  of  a 
mother  goat's  energy.  A  prospector  had  in  early 
summer  captured  a  kid  still  too  young  to  run 
much.  Its  mother  saw  him  taking  it  to  camp, 
ran  after  him,  chased  him  in  full  sight  of  his 
comrades  so  hotly  that  he  had  to  drop  her  child, 
and  she  got  it  back !  I  have  said  by  inference, 
but  must  definitely  state,  that  the  kids  are 
dropped  in  May  and  June. 

To  the  sum  of  our  knowledge  about  the 
Oreamnus  montanus,  the  gift  of  a  subspecies 
has  lately  been  offered ;  but  acceptance  of  this 
gift  would  at  present,  I  think,  be  premature.  It 
depends  on  one's  idea  of  the  number  of  facts 
needful  in  daily  life  to  justify  a  generalization. 
For  instance,  if  you  should  read  in  the  paper 
that  one  person  died  of  diphtheria  last  week  in 
New  York,  it  would  not  prevent  your  going  to 
that  city;  but  if  you  read  that  five  hundred  had 
died  in  a  week,  you  might  decide  not  to  take 


272  The  Wbtte  Goat 

your  children  there  for  the  season,  —  and  this 
would  be  the  result  of  a  justifiable  generalization. 
The  rule  is  nowise  different  in  genuine  science. 
This  new  variety  of  goat  has  been  based  upon  a 
single  specimen,  and  only  the  dried  skull  at  that ! 
Because  the  horns  were  a  few  inches  longer  and 
spread  a  few  inches  wider  than  the  average,  and 
because  there  were  certain  differences  in  measure- 
ment of  the  jaw,  is  scarce  adequate  proof  that 
these  variations  were  not  a  distortion,  congenital 
or  the  result  of  accident.  We  have  seen  people 
with  squints  and  with  club-feet;  we  have  also 
been  to  the  circus,  yet  we  do  not  make  sub- 
species for  the  Kentucky  giant  and  the  bearded 
lady.  But  that  little  ache  for  self-perpetuation, 
for  some  sort  of  permanence  in  this  forgetting 
world,  throbs  in  many  hearts,  and  since  we  are 
all  trying  to  affix  our  names  to  something  that 
will  hand  them  down  to  the  succeeding  genera- 
tions, why  not  tie  them  to  Oreamnus  and  Ovis  ? 
And  so,  reader,  you  have  the  pleasing  vision  of 
our  zoologists,  riding  down  to  posterity  upon  the 
backs  of  sundry  subspecies  of  goat  and  sheep. 

These  animals,  like  all  our  Western  big  game, 
are  disappearing.  It  is  not  (as  the  political 
Western  loud-talker  has  so  frequently  shouted) 


The  Wbite  Goat  273 

the  Eastern  "  tenderfoot "  who  is  responsible  for 
this  destruction ;  it  is  the  Westerner  himself, 
quietly  breaking  the  laws  he  made,  and  killing 
(to  take  one  recent  example)  dozens  of  bull  elk 
out  of  season  in  Jackson's  Hole,  Wyoming,  merely 
to  sell  the  two  teeth  known  as  "  tushes,"  and  leav- 
ing the  rest  of  the  carcass  to  rot  on  the  hills. 
That  is  the  real  man  who  is  destroying  our  big 
game,  just  as  he  is  wiping  out  our  forests.  Left 
in  his  hands,  the  face  of  our  continent  would 
presently  look  like  a  burnt  house.  Two  years 
before  I  hunted  the  goat,  the  deer  in  those  moun- 
tains came  down  in  herds  to  stare  at  the  new  set- 
tlers —  who  shot  them  from  their  cabin  doors  for 
fun.  The  deer  are  scarce  enough  now. 

The  Yellowstone  Park  is  a  sanctuary  for 
buffalo,  elk,  deer,  antelope,  and  sheep.  There  (if 
anywhere)  our  big  game  have  a  chance  of  surviv- 
ing. I  have  never  heard  of  goat  as  existing  in 
this  sanctuary ;  but  good  news  comes  lately  that 
the  sheep  are  thriving  upon  Mt.  Evarts.  Let  me 
suggest  to  the  commandant  that  he  take  steps  to 
secure  some  goat  from  the  Saw  Tooth  Range  — 
or  anywhere  he  best  can  —  and  try  the  interesting 
experiment  of  breeding  the  animal  in  the  Yellow- 
stone Park. 


274  The  Wbite  Goat 

ROCKY   MOUNTAIN   GOAT 

(HAPLOCERUS  MONTANus1) 

This  is  one  of  the  very  few  mammals  that  are 
permanently  white  or  whitish  at  all  seasons,  and 
although  commonly  termed  a  goat,  it  really  belongs 
to  the  same  group  as  the  serows,  which  it  closely 
resembles  in  the  form  and  color  of  the  horns.  In 
winter  the  hair  is  very  long,  and  pure  white  in 
color;  along  the  back  it  is  erect,  and  much  elon- 
gated on  the  withers  and  haunches,  so  as  to  give 
to  the  animal  the  appearance  of  possessing  a  pair 
of  humps.  The  summer  coat  is  comparatively 
short,  and  has  a  yellowish  tinge.  Height  at 
shoulder  just  short  of  3  feet;  weight  from  180  to 
300  pounds. 

Distribution. —  North  America,  throughout  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  from  about  latitude  36°  in  Cali- 
fornia at  least  as  far  north  as  latitude  60°.  By 
American  naturalists  the  proper  generic  name  of 
the  animal  is  considered  to  be  Oreamnus  instead 
of  Haplocerus. 

1  "  Records  of  Big  Game,"  Rowland  Ward,  third  edition. 


Tbe  White  Goat 

MEASUREMENTS  OF  HORNS 


275 


LENGTH 

ON  FRONT 
CURVE 

CIRCUM- 
FERENCE 

TIP  TO 
TIP 

LOCALITY 

OWNER 

-"i 

British  Columbia 

Clive  Phillipps-Wolley 

—ii 

Kutenay,  British 

John  T.  Fannin 

Columbia 

(measured  by) 

-10} 

51 

Montana 

Walter  James 

10} 

Si 

si  • 

British  Columbia 

R.  Rankin 

—  io| 

6} 

Similkameen  River, 

Arthur  Pearse 

British  Columbia 

io| 

S 

6i 

? 

E.  N.  Buxton 

-9I0i 

41 

British  Columbia 

Capt.  A.  Egerton 

10 

5f 

6f 

British  Columbia 

J.  V.  Colby 

-94 

5 

Montana 

Theodore  Roosevelt 

94 

Si 

6i 

N.W.  Territories 

S.  Ratcliff 

94 

Si 

6 

N.W.  Territories 

H.R.H.  le  Due 

d'Orleans 

9f 

Si 

6i 

N.W.  Territories 

Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder, 

Bart. 

9i 

Si 

6i 

Alaska 

Sir  George  Littledale 

9i 

4i 

North  America 

J.  D.  Cobbold 

99i 

4i 

Si 

British  Columbia 

P.  B.  Vander-Byl 

9i 

Si 

6f 

East  Kutenay,  British 

A.  E.  Butter 

Columbia 

-9i 

Si 

6i 

Bitter  Root  Mts., 

James  J.  Harrison 

U.S.A. 

-991 

4i 

5i 

British  Columbia 

A.  E.  Leatham 

-9f 

5t 

64 

British  Columbia 

T.  W.  H.  Clarke 

9i 

Si 

Si 

British  Columbia 

J.  Turner-Turner 

9i 

Si 

North  America 

Earl  of  Lonsdale 

9i 

Si 

54 

British  Columbia 

G.  Lloyd  Graeme 

9» 

6 

Montana 

Thomas  Bate, 

British  Museum 

9i 

Si 

5 

British  Columbia 

Sir  Peter  Walker,  Bart. 

9 

44 

6 

British  Columbia 

T.  P.  Kempson 

-8* 

Si 

4i 

British  Columbia 

Count  E.  Hoyos 

«i 

4| 

Si 

British  Columbia 

Count  Schiebler 

INDEX 


Age  indicated  by  rings  on    rams' 

horns,  208  ». 
Alaska,  buffalo  range  as  extending 

to,  123. 
Fossil    remains    of    musk-oxen 

found  in,  85. 
Mountain  sheep  in,  176,  181  n., 

223-224,  226,  246. 
Remains  of  buffaloes  found  in, 

123-124. 

Rumors  of  musk-oxen  in,  85-93. 

White  goat  found  in,  246, 250, 275. 

Alaskan   bighorn  \_Ovis  canadensis 

dallt],   176,  181  «.,  223- 

224,  226,  246. 
Alces  [Moose],  120. 
Alleghanies,  the,  eastern  boundary 

of  buffalo  range,  1 20. 
Allen,  Professor  J.  A.,  79,  80. 

Monograph  on  American  bisons 

by,  119. 
Animals,    attachment    of,    to    one 

locality,  138-146. 
Antelope,  white  goat  an,  232. 
Antelope-hunting  on  horses,  197. 
Antilope    americana,    white    goat 

termed,  259. 
Antilope  lanigera,  259. 
Arctic  islands,  musk-oxen  on,  51, 

60,  85,  93. 
Argalis,    Asiatic,    mountain    sheep 

distinguished  from,  223. 
Arizona,  mountain  sheep  in,  247. 
Arkansas,  musk-ox  skull  found  in, 

85- 


Audubon,  J.  J.,  122,  147. 

"  Missouri  River  Journal "  quoted, 

I57-IS9. 

Aurochs,  European  bison  called,  in. 
Aylmer  Lake,  musk-ox  killed  at,  94. 

Babiche,  41,  67. 

Bache  Peninsula,  musk-oxen  killed 
on,  76-79. 

Bad  Lands,  mountain  sheep  in  the, 
176. 

"Barren  Ground  of  Northern  Can- 
ada," W.  Pike's,  47. 

Barren  Grounds,  hunting  in,  17-29. 
Physical  character  of,  34-35. 
Route  for  best  reaching,  50-51. 
Snowfall  in,  35. 

Bear  River  Valley,  buffalo  formerly 
abundant  in,  125. 

Bedson,  S.  L.,  experiments  in  breed- 
ing buffalo  by,  148. 

Bent,  George,  128. 

Bent,  Colonel  William,  128. 

Berlin,  live  musk-ox  in,  103. 

Big  Bend  country,  description  of,  264. 

Bighorn(  American  \_Ovis  canaden- 
sis], 223-224.  See  Moun- 
tain sheep. 

Alaskan  \_0vis  canadensis  dalli], 
176,  181  n.,  223-224,226, 
246. 

"  Biological  Survey  of  Mount 
Shasta,"  250. 

Birds,  attachment  of,  to  certain 
localities,  142. 


277 


Index 


Bison,  American [Bos  bison],  1 1 1-166. 
Mountain,  126,  135-136. 
Points  distinguishing,  from  Euro- 
pean bison,  165. 
Prairie  [Bos  bison  typicus~\,  165. 
Reported    relation    of    musk-ox 

to,  75- 

See  Buffaloes. 
Bitter  Root  Mountains,  white  goat 

found  in,  275. 

Blackfeet  Indians,  white  buffalo  skin 
dedicated  to  Sun  by,  127. 
Bla'mville,  M.  de,  259. 
Bodfish,  Captain  H.  H.,  93,  103. 
Bonneville,  Captain,  on  buffaloes  in 

Bear  River  Valley,  125. 
Bos  bison  athabasca  [Wood  bison], 

117,  123,  165. 
Bos  bison  typicus   [Prairie   bison], 

I65- 
British  Columbia,  mountain   sheep 

in,  225,  226. 

White  goat  in,  231,  250,  275. 
Brown,  Arthur,  on  southern  range 

of  white  goat,  247. 
Brush,    absence    of,    from    Barren 

Grounds,  35-36. 
"Buck-fever,"  203-207. 
Buffaloes,  agility  of,  135-136. 

Attachment  to  one  locality,  140- 
146. 

Battles  between  males,  131-132. 

Bulls,  129-132. 

Butchering   of,  by   Indians,   de- 
scribed, 157-159. 

Calves,  132-135,  146-147. 

Color  of,  126-128,  132-133. 

Cross-breeding  of,  147-150. 

Description,  165. 

Domestication,  147-150. 

Extermination  of,  111-119. 

Habits,  129-130. 

Hair,  165. 

Height,  165. 


Buffaloes  [continued]  — 

Herds  of,  117,  161-163. 

Hides,  130-131. 

Horns,  165. 

Indians  hold  sacred,  127-129. 

Methods  of  hunting,  150-156. 

Migrations,  137-142. 

Panics  among,  136-137. 

Range,  119-126,  165. 

Rubbing-stones,  131,  163. 

Rutting  season,  131-132. 

Superstitions    concerning,    127- 
130. 

"  Surround  "  method  of  hunting, 
150-156. 

Trails,  138. 

Weight,  165. 

Young,  132-135,  146-147. 

5*1?  Bison. 
Buffalo-running,  159-161. 

California,   absence   of   white  goat 

from,  244-245. 
California    mountain    sheep    \_0vis 

canadensis  nelsoni],  223, 

226. 
Calves,  buffalo,  132-133,  146-147. 

Of  musk-oxen,  100, 103, 132-133. 
Camping   in   Barren   Grounds,   64- 

69. 

Canoes,  musk-ox  hunting  in,  61-62. 
Cape  Bryant,  musk-oxen   killed  at, 

93- 

Capote,  caribou-skin,  55. 
Capra  americana,  white  goat  called, 

259- 

Capra  montana,  259. 

Caribou,  course  of  migration,  in  Bar- 
ren Grounds,  44,  47-48. 

Cervus  canadensis  [Elk],  120. 

Chamois,  relation  of  white  goat  to, 
232. 

Charging,  false  reputation  of  musk- 
oxen  for,  73-75. 


Index 


279 


Cheyenne  Indians,  white  buffalo  skins 
dedicated  to  Sun  by,  127, 

Coffee  a  luxury  in  the  North,  50. 

Cogmolik  Indians,  92. 

Colorado,  buffalo-horns  from,  166. 

Colorado  Caflon,  mountain  sheep  in, 
247. 

Copenhagen,  live  musk-ox  in,  105. 

Corsica,  the  moufflon  of,  182. 

Coues,  Dr.  Elliott,  256. 

Dakota,  disappearance  of  mountain 
sheep  from,  178-179. 

Deer-hunting  on  horses,  197. 

District  of  Columbia,  buffaloes  re- 
ported as  once  found  in, 
120-121. 

Dodge,  Colonel,  115,  133,  161. 

Dogs,  question  of  shipping,  into  the 

Barren  Grounds,  41-42. 
Scarcity  of,  in  North   Country, 

38-39. 
See  Sledge-dogs. 

Domestication  of  buffaloes,  147-150. 

Drought,  buffaloes  driven  from  Mis- 
sissippi by,  121. 

Duffel,  the,  defined,  39. 

Duke  of  Bedford,  live  musk-ox 
owned  by,  103. 

Dunbar,  William,  257,  259. 

Dung  of  musk-ox,  100. 

Earl  of  Lonsdale,  musk-ox  horns 
owned  by,  99-100. 

Elk  \_Cervus  canadensis~\,  1 20. 

Slaughter  of,  at  Jackson's  Hole, 
Ky.,  273. 

Elk-hunting  on  horses,  197. 

Equipment  for  Barren  Ground  expe- 
dition, 53-54- 

Europe,  fossil  remains  of  musk-oxen 

found  in,  85. 

Specimens  (live)  of  musk-ox  in, 
103. 


Ewe  and  lamb,  Wister's  experience 
with,  210-222. 

Feeding,  problem  of,  in  Barren 
Grounds,  41-42. 

Firth,  John,  91. 

Flesh  of  musk-oxen,  100-103. 

Flowers  in  the  Barren  Grounds,  62. 

Fort  Resolution,  39,  50. 

Fossil  remains  of  musk-oxen,  85. 

Franz  Josef  Land,  musk-oxen  un- 
known in,  93. 

Fremont,  J.  C,  on  western  range  of 
buffaloes,  125. 

Fur,  color  of,  of  musk-oxen,  80, 
104. 

Gass,  175,  179,  256. 

Gaudet,  Hudson's  Bay  Company  post 

factor,  53. 
Goat,  relation  between  sheep   and, 

182.     See  White  goat. 
Grease,  craving  for,  in  the  North,  47. 
Great  Lakes  northern  boundary  of 

buffalo  range,  121. 
Greenland,  musk-oxen  in,  51,  79-80, 

85. 
Green    River,    buffaloes  found    on 

tributaries  of,  125. 
Grinnell    Land,   fossil    remains    of 

musk-oxen  in,  85. 
Musk-oxen  of,  79-80. 

Haggerty,  Captain,  90. 

Hair  of   white  goat,  239,  240-241, 

257- 

Haplocerus  montanus  [Rocky  Moun- 
tain goat],  231,  259,  274. 
See  White  goat. 

Harlan's  musk-ox  \_Ovibos  bombi- 
frons],  76,  85. 

Headgear  in  Barren  Ground  hunt- 
ing. 33-34- 

Heads  of  musk-oxen,  99-100. 


280 


Henry,  Alexander,  Journal  of,  118, 

161-162. 
Hides,  of  buffaloes,  130-131. 

White  goat,  241. 

Hodgson,  Mr.,  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany trader,  91. 
Hoofs  of  white  goat,  239-240. 
Hornaday,  W.  T.,  120-121,  148,  165. 
Horns,  of  mountain  sheep,  181  n. 

Musk-oxen's,  76,  98-100. 

Rings  on  rams',  208  ». 

White  goat's,  239. 
Horses,  antelope-hunting  on,  197. 

Buffalo-hunting  on,  153-155. 

Deer-hunting  on,  197. 

Sheep-hunting  on,  192-193. 
Hostility  between  sheep  and  goat, 

233-237»  245-246. 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  posts,  37. 
Hunter,  Dr.,  257,  259. 
Hunting  seasons  in  Barren  Grounds, 
44-48,  50-52. 

Idaho,  white  goat  in,  247,  250. 
India,  sheep  found  in,  182. 
Indians,  Alaskan,  90,  91,  92. 

For  Barren  Ground  hunting,  52- 

53- 

Buffaloes  formerly  sacred  to,  127. 

Methods  of,  in  hunting  musk- 
oxen,  47-49. 

Slaughter  of  buffalo  by,  157-159. 
Innuits,  musk-ox  hunting  by,  60-6 1. 

Jackson's  Hole,  elk-killing  at,  273. 

Jones,  C.  J.,  experiments  in  breeding 

buffalo  by,  148. 

Kamchatka,  sheep  found  in,  182. 
Kentucky,  buffaloes  formerly  in,  122. 

Domestication  of  buffaloes  in, 
147. 

Skull  of  musk-ox  found  in,  85. 
Kids  of  white  goat,  271. 


Knife  for  musk-ox  hunting,  67. 
Kodak,  hunting  with  a,  261. 
Kogmolik  Indians,  92. 
Kookpugmioot  Indians,  92. 

Lambs  of  mountain  sheep,  208-222. 
"Land  of  Little  Sticks,"  17,  36. 
Laramie   Plains,   buffaloes    on   the, 

124,  125. 
Lewis,   Meriwether,    175-176,   245, 

255-257. 
Confusion  of  goat  and  sheep  by, 

251,  255-260. 
Livingston,  Mont.,  mountain  sheep 

seen  at,  171-173, 183-184. 
London,  live  musk-ox  in,  103. 
Loucheaux  Indians,  91. 
Lydekker,  Professor  R.,  75,  79. 
"The  Royal  Natural  History" 

of,  246. 

Mackenzie  River,  musk-oxen  not 
found  west  of,  86-93. 

Maclaine  of  Lochbuie,  the,  horns 
of  sheep  owned  by,  224. 

Maps,  mistakes  in,  244-245. 

Mazama  Sericea,  white  goat  named, 

259. 
Mexico,  mountain  sheep  in,  181  »., 

247. 
Migrations,  buffalo,  137-142. 

Caribou,  in  Barren  Grounds,  44, 

47-48. 
Mississippi,    buffaloes    formerly  in, 

121. 
"Missouri    River    Journal,"   Audu- 

bon's,  quoted,  157-159. 
Moccasins  essential  in  Barren  Ground 

outfit,  39. 

Montana,  bison  horns  from,  166. 
Mountain  sheep  in,  225,  226. 
White  goat  in,  250,  275. 
Moore,      Francis,       "Voyage       to 

Georgia"  of,  121. 


Index 


281 


Moose  [A Ices],  120. 
Mosquitoes  in  Barren  Grounds,  44. 
Moufflon,  the,  of  Corsica,  182. 
Mt.  Evarts,  sheep  on,  273. 
Mountain  bison,  126,  135-136. 
Mountain  sheep  [American  bighorn, 
Ovis    canadensis'],    171- 
226. 

Color,  179-180. 

Description,  179-183,  223-224. 
Distribution,  176,  224. 
Habitat,  199,  246-247. 
Height,  224. 
Hide,  179. 
Horns,  223-225. 
Hostility  to  goat,  233-237,  245- 

246. 

Keenness  of  sight,  219. 
Lambs,  208-222. 
Method  of  hunting,  197-199. 
Range,  176,  224. 
Rutting  season,  184,  208. 
Species   and   subdivisions,   180- 

182. 

Weight,  224. 
White  goat  and,  233-237,  245- 

246. 
White  variety  [Ovis  dallt],  181, 

2OI. 

Munn,  Henry  Toke,  47. 
Musk-ox  of  Barren  Grounds  [Ovi- 

bos  moschatus],  17-106. 
Action  when  attacked,  59-60,  73- 

75- 

Appearance,  73. 
Calves,  loo,  103,  130-131. 
Dung  of,  100. 
Flesh,  loo,  103. 
Fur,  97-98,  104-105. 
Genus,  75-80. 
Herds  of,  97. 
Hides  not  valuable,  52. 
Horns,  98-100,  104,  106. 
Inaccessibility  of,  50. 


Musk-ox  \continucd~\  — 

Method  of  hunting,  56-69. 

Origin  (reputed),  70. 

Permit  necessary  for  hunting,  51. 

Range,  76,  79-80,  85-94,  105. 

Size,  94,  105. 

Specimens  (live),  103. 

National  Park,  Colorado,  buffaloes 
in,  1 1 7-1 1 8.  See  Yellow- 
stone Park. 

Noonitagmiott  Indians,  90. 

North  Platte  River,  buffaloes  on 
tributaries  of,  126. 

Olympic  Range,  white  goat  not 
found  in,  250. 

Ord,  George,  259. 

Oreamnus  montanus  [Rocky  Moun- 
tain goat],  231,  259,  274. 

Oregon,  absence  of  white  goat  from, 
250. 

Ovibos  bombifrons  [Harlan's  musk- 
ox],  76,  85. 

Ovibos  moschatus  [Barren  Ground 
and  Greenland  type  of 
musk-ox],  76,  80,  82,  83, 
104-105. 

Ovibos  pearyi,  80. 

Ovibos  "wardi,  76,  77,  79,  80,  82,  83, 
104-105,  106. 

Ovis  canadensis  [American  big- 
horn], 180-181,  208,  223- 
224.  See  Mountain  sheep. 

Ovis  canadensis  auduboni,  181. 

Ovis  canadensis  dalli  [Alaskan  big- 
horn], 176,  181  «.,  223- 
224,  226,  246. 

Ovis  canadensis  nelsoni  [Californian 
sheep],  223,  224. 

Ovis  canadensis  stonei,  223. 

Ovis  canadensis  typica  [Rocky 
Mountain  sheep],  223, 
259- 


282 


Index 


Ovis  cervina,  181. 

Ovis  da  Hi,  181,  201. 

Ovis  fannini  [Saddleback  sheep], 

181-182,  213. 
Ovii  mexicana,  181. 
Ovis  montana,  259. 
Ovis  nelsoni,  181,  187. 
Ovis  stonei,  177,  181. 

Panics  among  buffaloes,  136-137. 

Pawnee  Indians,  buffalo  skins  sacred 
to,  127. 

Peary,  Lieutenant,  musk-ox  captured 

by,  105. 
Musk-oxen  killed  by,  76-79,  93. 

Pemmican,  from  dried  buffalo  meat, 

156. 
Scarcity  of,  in  the  North,  49. 

Philadelphia,  white  goat  in  Zoologi- 
cal Gardens  at,  231,  237- 
238. 

Piccolo,  Padre,  250. 

Pike,  Warburton,  47,  62,  74,  94. 
Musk-ox  heads  owned  by,  roo. 

Pine,  patches  of,  in  Land  of  Little 
Sticks,  36. 

Platte  River,  buffaloes  on  tributaries 
of,  125-126. 

Prairie  bison  (Bos  bison  typicus), 
165. 

Protection,  government,  of  musk- 
oxen,  51. 

Provision  question  in  musk-ox  hunt- 
ing, 36-38. 

Provisions  in  Barren  Grounds,  62-63. 

Rae,    J.,    Hudson's    Bay  Company 

factor,  99. 
Railroads,   effect   of,   on    buffaloes, 

113-116. 
Ram    seen    at    Livingston,    Mont., 

171-173,  183-184. 
"  Records  of  Big  Game,"  R.  Ward's, 

104,  165,  223-224,  274. 


Red  Desert  Country,  buffaloes  in, 
126. 

Red  River,  buffaloes  on  the,  162. 

Red  River  half-breeds,  buffalo  hunts 
of,  117,  154-155- 

Rings  on  rams'  horns,  208  n. 

Robinson,  John  ("  Uncle  Jack  Rob- 
inson "),  124. 

Rocky  Mountain  goat  [Haplocerus 
montanus  or  Oreamnus 
montant4s\,  231,  259,  274. 
See  White  goat. 

Rocky  Mountain  sheep  [Ovis  cana- 
densis  typica~\,  223,  259. 

"  Royal  Natural  History,  The,"  Ly- 
dekker's,  246,  247. 

Rubbing-stones,  buffaloes',  131,  163. 

Rupicapra  americana,  white  goat 
termed,  259. 

Rutting  season,  buffaloes',  131-132. 
Mountain  sheep's,  184,  208. 

Saddleback  sheep   [Ovis  fannini], 

181-182,  213. 

Salt  Lake  Valley,  buffaloes  in,  124. 
Salvatierra,  Padre  de,  250. 
Saw  Tooth  Range,  white  goat  in,  247. 
Schwatka,  Frederick,  60,  61,  93. 
Serows,  Rocky  Mountain  goat  mem- 
ber of  same  group  as,  274. 
Sheep.     See  Mountain  sheep. 
Shoshone  Indians,  sheep-hunting  on 

horses  by,  193. 
Siberia,  fossil  remains  of  musk-oxen 

found  in,  85. 

Skulls  of  musk-oxen,  75-76, 80, 82, 83. 
Slaughter  of  buffaloes  in  America, 

114-119. 
Sledge,   description    of,   in    Barren 

Ground  outfit,  40-41. 
Sledge-dogs,  methods  of  harnessing, 

60-61. 

Scarcity  of,  in  North,  38-39. 
Snowfall  in  Barren  Grounds,  35. 


Index 


283 


Snows,  effect  on  buffaloes,  124,  137. 

Snow-shoes,  Barren  Ground,  35. 

Spitzbergen,  musk-oxen  unknown 
in,  93- 

Stone,  Andrew  J.,  report  as  to  west- 
ern range  of  musk-oxen, 
86-93. 

Slouch,  Major  G.  W.  H.,  143. 

Stringer,  Rev.  I.  O.,  89,  90. 

Strouds,  53,  54. 

"  Surround  "  method  of  hunting  buf- 
falo, 150-153. 

Sweetwater  River,  buffaloes  on,  126. 

Tail,   lack   of,  in   mountain   sheep, 

182. 
Tea  an  essential  in  Barren  Ground 

outfit,  39-40. 
Tennessee  River  southern  boundary 

of  buffalo  range,  121. 
Tepee  in  Barren  Ground  outfit,  55, 

57»  64. 
Teton  Range,  sheep-hunting  in,  209- 

222. 
Tibet,  sheep  found  in,  182. 

White  goat  in,  239. 
Tobacco,    necessity    of,   in    Barren 

Ground  outfit,  39-40. 
Tooyogmioot  Indians,  90. 
Tracks  made  by  white  goat,  239-240. 
Travelling,  methods   of,  in   Barren 

Ground  hunting,  62-63. 
Trees,    absence     of,    from     Barren 

Grounds,  35-36. 
"Tripping"  snow-shoes,  35. 

Vaches  (y  aches  sauvagei),  I2O. 
Virginia,  domestication  of  buffaloes 

in,  147. 
"Voyage  to  Georgia,"  Moore's,  121. 

Ward,  Rowland,  79. 

"  Records   of    Big    Game "   by, 
cited,  104,  165,  223,  274. 


Washakie  Needle,  mountain  sheep 

on  the,  186-196. 
Washington     (state),    white     goat 

found  in,  250. 
White  goat  \_Oreamnus  montanus], 

227-273. 

Color,  242-243,  274. 
Description,  239-242. 
Food,  249. 

Habitat,  231,  245-251. 
Hair,  257. 
Height,  274. 
Hide,  241. 
Horns,  258. 
Hostility  to  sheep,  233-237,  245- 

246. 
Immigration  from  Asia,  232-233, 

245-246. 
Kids,  271. 

Lewis's  error  about,  251, 255-260. 
Method  of  hunting,  260. 
Origin,  232-233. 
Relationship  to  chamois,  232. 
Sheep  and,  233-237,  245-246. 
Size,  242. 
Species,  232,  259. 
Specimens  (live),  231,  237-238. 
Track  made  by,  239-240. 
Various  Latin  names  for,  259. 
Weight,  241,  274. 
Whitney,     Casper,     musk-ox    head 

taken  by,  100. 
Whitney,  William  C.,  live  musk-ox 

bought  by,  103. 
Wild  cows,  elk  called,  120. 
Wood  bison  [Bos  bison  athabascaT\, 

117,  123,  165. 

Wool  of  musk-ox,  97-98,  104-105. 
Wycliff,  Robert,  147,  148,  149. 
Wyoming,  bison  horns  from,  166. 
Mountain    sheep   in,    185,    225, 

226. 

White  goat  not   found  in,  245, 
248. 


284 


Index 


Yancey,  John,  252. 

Yellowstone  Park,  bison  horns  from, 

1 66. 

Buffaloes  in,  117-118. 
Game  in,  273. 

Yoke,  breaking  buffaloes  to  the,  149. 
Young,  of  buffaloes,  132-135,  146- 

147. 
Of  mountain  sheep,  208-222. 


Young  [continued]  — 

Of  musk-oxen,  100,  103. 
Of  white  goat,  271. 

Zoological  gardens,   musk-oxen  in, 

103. 
Zoological    Gardens,    Philadelphia, 

white  goat   in,  231,  237- 

238. 


AMERICAN   SPORTSMAN'S   LIBRARY 

Edited  by  CASPAR  WHITNEY 

Crown  8vo.        Cloth.        Each  $2.00  net 


The  Deer  Family 


By  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,  T.  S.  VAN  DYKE,  D.  G.  ELLIOT,  and  A.  J. 
STONE.  Illustrated  by  CARL  RUNGIUS  ;  with  map  by  Dr.  C.  HART 
MERRIAM. 

"  The  illustrations  by  Carl  Rungius  are  excellent  and  appropriate,  and 
the  entire  contents  of  the  book  bear  evidence  of  having  been  written  by  men 
who  have  a  loving  and  educated  interest  in  their  subjects." 

—  New  York  Evening  Post. 


Upland  Game  Birds 

By  EDWYN  SANDYS  and  T.  S.  VAN  DYKE.    Illustrated  by  L.  A.  FUERTES, 
A.  B.  FROST,  J.  O.  NUGENT,  and  C.  L.  BULL. 

"  It  is  a  creditable  work,  written  with  care  and  intelligence,  and  will  be 
found  very  entertaining  by  those  who  pursue  feathered  game.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  instruction  to  be  found  in  the  work,  which  is  likely  to  add  con- 
siderably to  the  success  of  the  sportsman  when  hunting  the  birds  described." 

—  Shooting  and  Fishing. 


Salmon  and  Trout 

By  DEAN  SAGE,  W.  C.   HARRIS,   and  G   H.  TOWNSEND.    Illustrated  by 
A.  B.  FROST  and  others. 

"A  distinctly  valuable  and  authoritative  contribution.  .  .  .  Will  be 
found  to  contain  interesting  material  and  reliable  information  for  the  enthusi- 
astic fisherman,  who  would  know  how,  when,  and  where  to  fish  for  these 
gamy  denizens  of  our  lakes  and  streams." 

—  The  Fishing  Gazette. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


AMERICAN   SPORTSMAN'S    LIBRARY 


The  Water=fowl  Family 

By  LEONARD  C.  SANFORD,  L.  B.  BISHOP,  and  T.  S.  VAN  DYKE. 
Illustrated  by  L.  A.  FUERTES,  'A.  B.  FROST,  and  C.  L.  BULL. 
Now  ready.  Price  $2.00  net. 

Bass,  Pike,  Perch,  and  Pickerel 

By  JAMES  A.  HENSHALL,  M.D.  Illustrated  by  MARTIN  JUSTICE  and 
others.  Now  ready.  Price  $2.00  net. 

Big  Game  Fishes  of  the  United  States 

By  CHARLES  F.  HOLDER.  Illustrated  by  CHARLES  F.  W.  MIELATZ 
and  others.  Now  ready.  Price  $2.00  net. 

The  Sporting  Dog 

By  JOSEPH  A.  GRAHAM,  with  many  illustrations.  Now  ready.  Price 
$2.00  net. 

Musk=ox,  Bison,  Sheep,  and  Goat 

By  CASPAR  WHITNEY,  GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL,  and  OWEN  WISTER. 
Illustrated  by  CARL  RUNGIUS  and  others.  Now  ready.  Price 
#2.00  net. 


By  A.  W.  MONEY,  W.  E.  CARLIN,  A.  L.  A.  HIMMELWRIGHT,  and 
J.  HARRINGTON  KEENE.    Illustrated. 

Photography  for  the  Sportsman 
Naturalist 

By  W.  E.  CARLIN.    Illustrated. 

Further  volumes  will  include  articles  on  The  Bear  Family;  The 
Cougar,  Wild  Cat,  Wolf,  and  Fox;  American  Race  Horse  and  Run- 
ning Horse ;  Trotting  and  Pacing ;  Riding  and  Driving ;  Yachting, 
Small  Boat  Sailing,  and  Canoeing ;  Baseball  and  Football ;  Rowing, 
Track  Athletics,  and  Swimming ;  Lacrosse,  Lawn  Tennis,  Wrestling, 
Racquets,  Squash,  and  Court  Tennis  ;  Skating,  Hockey,  Ice  Yachting, 
Coasting,  and  Skate  Sailing. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


uc  SOUTHERN  REG;  gLl!SJ!SSSffl| 


Date  Due 


JUN 

71963 

APR 

iqftt 

JAN     a 

966 

HL2*  "*" 

~tu'UG      f 

Ml  2  6 

966 

Y 

AND 

STATION 

•  —  v 

Library  Bureau  Cat.  No.  1137 

